Listen Here
By Logan Williams and Victoria Hansen
williamsl10@findlay.edu
hansenv@findlay.edu
The Ohio Supreme Court voting day is coming up soon, on November 3rd. The final deadline for voter registration is October 5th. Voters have two candidates to choose from: Jennifer Brunner (D) and Colleen O’Donnell (R).
Jennifer Brunner is currently one of seven justices currently on the Ohio Supreme Court and was elected in 2020. Brunner served as Ohio Secretary of State from 2007 to 2011. As Secretary of State, Brunner focused on increasing voter registration and voter turnout. In November 2008, Brunner was sued over the validity of 1,000 provisional ballots that did not have signatures but were counted anyways. She ran for U.S. Senate in 2010 but lost in the primary to Lee Fischer.
As an Ohio Supreme Court justice, Brunner authored the sole dissent in a ruling allowing some convicted felons to apply for restored gun rights. She ruled in favor of a 2025 ruling requiring AES Ohio to repay over $61 million of excessive earnings to overcharged clients.
Colleen O’Donnell is the Republican candidate running for Brunner’s seat. Before running for Ohio Supreme Court, O’Donnell was a U.S. Immigration Judge in Loredo, Texas working with illegal entry law and asylum cases. Her website says “she enforced the law as written, never once granted asylum, and consistently ordered the removal of illegal aliens from our country.” Before her work in Loredo, O’Donnell worked in the Franklin County Common Pleas Court.
O’Donnell said to the Ohio Capital Journal that she has “always been interested and motivated by public service, particularly through the judiciary,” and that “partisan politics really has no place in the courthouse.”
In the Republican primary, O’Donnell won 32% of the vote.
