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        • Amy F. Grubbe, Chairwoman
        • Robert Ritzler, Vice-Chairman
        • Linda Miller-Moore, Secretary
        • MaryAnn Groot, Treasurer
      • Central Committee Members – 2022-2026
      • Executive Committee Members – 2022-2026
        • Responsibilities of Central and Executive Committee Members
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    • State Senate – Democratic Minority Leadership – 135th General Assembly
    • State House – Democratic Minority Leadership – 135th General Assembly
    • Erie County Democratic Officeholders
      • Erie County Prosecuting Attorney Kevin J. Baxter
      • Erie County Engineer John ‘Jack’ D. Farschman, P.E., P.S.
      • Erie County Recorder Ellen M. Olsen
      • Erie County Sheriff Paul A. Sigsworth
      • Erie County Clerk of Courts Luvada S. Wilson
    • Teresa Fedor – Ohio State Board of Education-2nd District
    • Ohio Supreme Court Justices
      • Ohio Supreme Court Justice Michael P. Donnelly
      • Ohio Supreme Court Justice Melody J. Stewart
      • Ohio Supreme Court Justice Jennifer Brunner
    • Ohio Sixth District Court of Appeals Judges
      • Judge Thomas J. Osowik
      • Judge Myron C. Duhart
    • Erie County Common Pleas Court
      • Judge Tygh M. Tone – General Division
      • Judge Beverly K. McGookey – General Division/Probate
    • Municipal Court Judges
      • Judge Erich J. O’Brien
      • Judge W. Zack Dolyk
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      • Margaret M. Murray – ODP State Central Committee Woman-2nd Senate District
      • Tom Galloway – ODP State Central Committee Man-2nd Senate District
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      • Main Street Initiative & LEAD Ohio Trainings Announced: Run For Office 2023
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    • Thank You Candidates!
    • IMPORTANT: Ohio Redistricting = Erie County new lines and districts
  • NEWS
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    • Redistricting Ohio
    • SFC Heath Robinson PACT Act
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    • Are you ready to vote in 2023?
    • ECDP Executive Committee
      • ECDP HQ
    • Democratic Women of Erie County
    • The Sandusky Democratic Club
    • Main Street Initiative: So, You want to Run? Running for Office 101
    • Main Street Initiative: So, You’re starting your campaign? Running for Office 201
    • Main Street Initiative: Campaign Management Bootcamp – Running for Office 301
    • LEAD Ohio - Candidates and Campaign Staff Trainings
    • Voter Registration Drives
    • Erie County Parades, Festivals and Fair
  • CONTACT US
  • LINKS

Ohio Supreme Court Justice Jennifer Brunner

Official Website: Justice Jennifer Brunner

January 2, 2021 – present
Last day of current term: January 1, 2027

PRIOR JUDICIAL PUBLIC SERVICE:

From 2014 through 2020, Justice Brunner served as an elected state appeals court judge of the Tenth District Court of Appeals located in Franklin County, Ohio. She previously served as a Franklin County Common Pleas judge from 2000 through 2005, founding its adult felony drug court, the TIES Program (Treatment is Essential to Success), still in operation today.

PRIOR ELECTIVE PUBLIC SERVICE:

Justice Brunner served as Ohio’s first female Secretary of State from 2007 – 2011, overseeing the first election of President Barack Obama in 2008. In 2008, then-Secretary Brunner received the bipartisan John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award for her public service. The award recognizes “a public official (or officials) at the federal, state, or local level whose actions demonstrate the qualities of politically courageous leadership.” She is the only Ohioan to have received the award. In 2010, Judge Brunner was a candidate for the United States Senate.

PRIOR GOVERNMENTAL SERVICE:

Justice Brunner has served on state and local governmental boards, appointed by both Republican and Democratic governors and other local officials, including:

  • Ohio Counselor, Social Worker, Marriage and Family Therapist Board
  • Ohio Cultural Facilities Commission
  • Ohio Student Loan Commission
  • Franklin County Board of Elections

Justice Brunner also served as an attorney in the Ohio Secretary of State’s office early in her legal career and as a committee secretary and legislative aide in the Ohio Senate following her graduation from Miami University.

PRIVATE PRACTICE EXPERIENCE:

Justice Brunner holds 17 years’ private law practice experience, having founded her own law firm in 1988 after gaining experience as an associate in a Cleveland law firm and clerking for several law firms as a law student. Justice Brunner’s solo and law firm private practice was centered in election and government law, including campaign finance and election litigation. She also has assisted clients with legislative and rule drafting, multi-state and federal FCC telecom compliance for providing low-income cellular service, computer law and government contracting, criminal appellate work and general litigation. She served as the administrative partner of her law firm for six years.

FOREIGN RULE OF LAW EXPERIENCE:

Following her service as Secretary of State, Justice Brunner assisted foreign governments with rule-of-law and self-governance matters as an expert for USAID of the U.S. State Department in matters of anti-corruption and judicial reform in the Republic of Serbia, election observation in the Arab Republic of Egypt, and legal training in the Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka.

Justice Brunner served for nine years on the Ohio advisory committee of the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition, based in Washington, D.C., an organization promoting adequate funding of the International Affairs budget to strengthen development and diplomacy alongside defense. She was selected as a Sisters on the Planet Ambassador for OxFam America, advocating alongside other U.S. women leaders for relief for global poverty, hunger, and injustice with a focus on empowering women and girls.

Justice Brunner has moderate fluency in Spanish. She is able to read the Cyrillic alphabet in Russian and Serbian with limited fluency in their spoken languages.

NONPROFIT BOARD EXPERIENCE:

Justice Brunner served for eight years as a member of the board of advisors of The Legacy Fund of The Columbus Foundation, an endowment fund created by and for the central Ohio lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, ally (LGBTQIA) community. The endowment provides grants, scholarships and technical support for the LGBTQIA community in central Ohio. Justice Brunner served for three years as the board’s first ally chair. Justice Brunner served for seven years on the board of the Cleveland-based Center for Community Solutions, a nonpartisan think tank focused on solutions to health, social, and economic issues. Justice Brunner served six years on the board of Mental Health America of Franklin County, a mental health advocacy organization in central Ohio.

EDUCATIONAL AND PERSONAL BACKGROUND:

Justice Brunner was born in Springfield, Ohio, the oldest of four children of parents who grew up in South Charleston, Ohio. As a child, she spent much time on her grandparents’ farm and in South Charleston, and saw places associated with her family roots in Jackson, Fayette, Madison and Clark counties.

Justice Brunner spent her formative and adult years in Columbus. She graduated from Columbus public schools, from college at Miami University, with a degree in sociology-gerontology, cum laude, and from law school at Capital University Law School, in Columbus, with honors, giving birth to her first child while in law school.

Justice Brunner has been married since 1978 to attorney Rick Brunner, who grew up on a farm in Columbiana County, near Alliance, Ohio. They have three adult children and six grandchildren and maintain a farm in the area where he grew up.

Justice Brunner has traveled extensively to destinations in Asia, Africa, Central America, Europe, and North America. She authored a memoir, Cupcakes and Courage, in 2012, about growing up in Ohio, her experiences in public life, and her 2010 U.S. Senate campaign. She loves dogs and cats, art, reading, and music and paints in encaustic medium.

GOALS FOR OFFICE:

Justice Brunner is committed to providing fairness, equality and respect for all Ohioans and persons who come before the state’s highest court. She will work to build effective and collegial working relationships with the other justices of the court, the court’s staff and other courts of Ohio whose work is affected and advised by the work of the state’s highest court. As a justice, she pledges to be fair, impartial, independent, kind, and conscientious in fulfilling her oath as a constitutional officer of the State of Ohio.

Justice Jennifer Brunner
The Supreme Court of Ohio
65 South Front Street
Columbus, OH 43215-3436
614-387-9000

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Pages

MENUMENU
  • HOME
  • WHO WE ARE
    • Erie County Democratic Party
      • Erie County Democratic Party Officers – 2022-2026
        • Amy F. Grubbe, Chairwoman
        • Robert Ritzler, Vice-Chairman
        • Linda Miller-Moore, Secretary
        • MaryAnn Groot, Treasurer
      • Central Committee Members – 2022-2026
      • Executive Committee Members – 2022-2026
        • Responsibilities of Central and Executive Committee Members
      • ECDP Constitution and Bylaws
    • Democratic Women of Erie County
      • Ohio Democratic Women’s Caucus (ODWC)
    • Erie County Democratic Party Friends
    • Democratic National Committee (DNC)
    • Ohio Democratic Party (ODP)
    • History * Fun Facts * Trivia
      • History: The Democratic Party
      • Ohio History & Trivia
      • How bills become laws in Ohio
      • Kids Fun Facts, Guides & Links to the U.S. Government
    • OPPORTUNITIES TO MAKE CHANGE!
  • ELECTED OFFICIALS
    • President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris
    • U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown
    • U.S. Representative Marcy Kaptur – Ohio’s 9th Congressional District
    • State Senate – Democratic Minority Leadership – 135th General Assembly
    • State House – Democratic Minority Leadership – 135th General Assembly
    • Erie County Democratic Officeholders
      • Erie County Prosecuting Attorney Kevin J. Baxter
      • Erie County Engineer John ‘Jack’ D. Farschman, P.E., P.S.
      • Erie County Recorder Ellen M. Olsen
      • Erie County Sheriff Paul A. Sigsworth
      • Erie County Clerk of Courts Luvada S. Wilson
    • Teresa Fedor – Ohio State Board of Education-2nd District
    • Ohio Supreme Court Justices
      • Ohio Supreme Court Justice Michael P. Donnelly
      • Ohio Supreme Court Justice Melody J. Stewart
      • Ohio Supreme Court Justice Jennifer Brunner
    • Ohio Sixth District Court of Appeals Judges
      • Judge Thomas J. Osowik
      • Judge Myron C. Duhart
    • Erie County Common Pleas Court
      • Judge Tygh M. Tone – General Division
      • Judge Beverly K. McGookey – General Division/Probate
    • Municipal Court Judges
      • Judge Erich J. O’Brien
      • Judge W. Zack Dolyk
    • ODP State Committee Members
      • Margaret M. Murray – ODP State Central Committee Woman-2nd Senate District
      • Tom Galloway – ODP State Central Committee Man-2nd Senate District
  • CANDIDATES
    • Interested in becoming a candidate?
      • What is involved? What are the requirements to be a candidate?
      • Main Street Initiative & LEAD Ohio Trainings Announced: Run For Office 2023
    • Congratulations Candidates!
    • Thank You Candidates!
    • IMPORTANT: Ohio Redistricting = Erie County new lines and districts
  • NEWS
  • ISSUES
    • Redistricting Ohio
    • SFC Heath Robinson PACT Act
    • Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 = Historic Legislation
      • The American Jobs Plan
      • The American Families Plan
    • The American Rescue Plan Act of 2021
    • Know the petition process!
      • Know your ballot issues!
      • Ohio Ballot Board Members
    • Affordable Care Act
    • Ohio Legislature: Workers’ and Unions’ Issues
    • U.S. Supreme Court
      • Test your knowledge!
      • History of SCOTUS
      • SCOTUS 2022-2023 cases to be heard
  • ACTION ITEMS
  • EVENTS
    • Are you ready to vote in 2023?
    • ECDP Executive Committee
      • ECDP HQ
    • Democratic Women of Erie County
    • The Sandusky Democratic Club
    • Main Street Initiative: So, You want to Run? Running for Office 101
    • Main Street Initiative: So, You’re starting your campaign? Running for Office 201
    • Main Street Initiative: Campaign Management Bootcamp – Running for Office 301
    • LEAD Ohio - Candidates and Campaign Staff Trainings
    • Voter Registration Drives
    • Erie County Parades, Festivals and Fair
  • CONTACT US
  • LINKS
Donate Now

© 2023 Erie County Democratic Party, All Rights Reserved

Paid for and authorized by the Erie County Democratic Party, Amy F. Grubbe, Chairman

P.O. Box 135, Sandusky, OH 44871-0135.

Not authorized by any Federal, state or county candidate or campaign committee.