Carolyn Nichols

A state Superior Court judge announced that she will run to fill an opening on the state’s Supreme Court this year.

Chief Justice Thomas Saylor, a Republican, has reached the mandatory retirement age of 75. On Monday, Superior Court Judge Carolyn Nichols, a Democrat, announced her intention to run for the opening.

Nichols will have to contend with two of her colleagues, Democrat Maria McLaughlin and Republican Vic Stabile, who have also announced their intentions to run.

The two state party organizations will decide their endorsements in the coming months for the May primary.

Nichols was elected in 2017 to a 10-year term on the state’s Superior Court. The Pennsylvania Superior Court is one of two intermediate appellate courts for the state. It has jurisdiction to hear appeals from all criminal and most civil cases arising from the Pennsylvania Courts of Common Pleas.

Before her judicial career, Nichols served as the legislative assistant to former Philadelphia Councilwoman Augusta Clarke; assistant city solicitor and deputy secretary for external affairs for the Mayor’s Office; and city deputy finance director, a position in which she managed the Minority Business Enterprise Council. She was elected to the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas in 2011.

After graduating from Overbrook High School, Nichols earned her bachelor of fine arts, juris doctorate and master of law degrees from Temple University, and her MBA from Eastern University.

“It is critical that Pennsylvania’s highest court holds this country to its promise of making equal justice for all a reality,” Nichols said in a statement.

If Nichols wins, she would be the first Black woman elected to the Supreme Court in its 300-year history as the oldest appellate court in the United States.