Students who are Ohio voters will be voting for their representatives in the Ohio House of Representatives, which, due to CWRU’s position in technically two cities, changes depending on which end of campus you live on.
For those in the City of Cleveland, which includes all of the North Residential Village and the new South Residential Village residence halls, the race is between incumbent Democrat Terrence Upchurch and Republican Donna Brown, a community activist involved in the 2020 push to reopen Ohio businesses. Those who are in Cleveland Heights—Murray Hill and Carlton Road residents—are deciding between Democrat Juanita Brent, who currently represents 22nd District, and Justyn Anderson, who works at ECMD International Music & Film Distribution.
A more prominent race is for the Supreme Court of Ohio, the highest court in the state. Three seats are up for grabs with six individuals, three Republican and three Democrat, running for them. The Republican party’s 4-3 majority on the court is up for either expansion or could turn into a 4-3 Democratic majority with this vote. A lot of the voter mobilization efforts for this race harken back to previous elections, specifically last fall’s passing of Issue 1, noting that it is the Supreme Court of Ohio that will decide what to do about these constitutional changes.
One of the last elections with party-level affiliations is for the Eighth District Court of Appeals, one of the state’s appellate level courts. This court exclusively covers Cuyahoga County. Three out of the four judges are incumbent in their positions: Deena R. Calabrese is currently a judge in the Court of Common Pleas. All four judges are running on the Democratic ticket.
Lastly, voters will be weighing onto the race for the State Board of Education’s 11th congressional district. This election, like many of the judicial elections on the county level, are non-partisan. It is between Delores Gray Ford, an educator, and Jennie Kelley-Crosby. Ford currently has the endorsement of the Cuyahoga County Democratic Party and Senator Brown. Kelley-Crosby works at MetroHealth as a clinical informatics analyst.