Ohio Supreme Court Justice Melody Stewart and former Attorney General Eric Holder attend a canvassing event in Columbus on Oct. 24. (Photo by Megan Henry, Ohio Capital Journal).
Former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder fired up canvassers at a recent event for the three Democratic candidates running for Ohio Supreme Court.
Holder joined incumbent Democratic Justice Melody Stewart who is running for re-election at a canvassing event in Columbus Thursday afternoon.
“Three great candidates for the Ohio Supreme Court that we’ve got to work for, vote for and put them up there,” Holder said before Democratic volunteers went door knocking. “The stakes are too high. The stakes are simply too hot. Donald Trump has created a permission structure for the Republican Party. He’s actually transformed the Republican Party, maybe even destroyed the Republican Party, and it is now just a MAGA-cult.”
Six candidates are vying for three seats on the Ohio Supreme Court, which the Republicans currently have a 4-3 majority.
The candidates, the ballot measures, and the tools you need to cast your vote.
Republican Hamilton County Court of Common Pleas Judge Megan Shanahan is going up against incumbent Democratic Justice Michael P. Donnelly. Republican Justice Joseph Deters opted not to run for his current seat and is instead competing for Stewart’s seat for a full six-year term. Republican Judge Dan Hawkins and Democratic Judge Lisa Forbes, of the Eighth District Court of Appeals, are going for Deters’ open seat, a term that will expire on Dec. 31, 2026.
“There’s a whole range of issues that the Supreme Court is going to be considering, and the people who are on the Supreme Court now are really nothing more than a rubber stamp for the gerrymandered GOP legislature,” Holder said.
Holder, who was the Attorney General under former President Barack Obama from Feb. 2009 to April 2015, is making appearances in a handful of states leading up to the election including Michigan and North Carolina.
“Supreme courts have the ability to have an impact on your day-to-day life, the decisions they make deal with reproductive rights, climate, voter protection, judicial criminal justice reform,” Holder said. “There’s a whole range of issues that affect every American that are going to be decided by state supreme courts. … so that’s why these elections are really critical,” Holder said.
While the event was mainly about the Ohio Supreme Court races, Holder take a moment to throw his support behind Democrat Sherrod Brown for Senate and the proposed Ohio Issue 1 redistricting reform.
Stewart talked about her opponent Deters at the canvassing event, but never mentioned him by name.
“I hope we sent a message to our governor about his recent political appointment, who has decided to run against me, a man who was appointed to an empty seat in the Supreme Court, who not a single solitary voter in the state of Ohio ever elected him to the position, who, out of the six people running is the least qualified, and who only got to the appointment because he is good friends with the governor,” she said.
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine appointed Deters to the Ohio Supreme Court in January 2023, despite having no previous experience as a judge. The Deters and the DeWines are family friends, having known each other for 30 years.
“I hope we send a message to the governor and all governors after him, Republican or Democrat, don’t use your appointment power to put political puppets on our judiciary,” Stewart said.
She also talked about the 2021 law that added party labels to Ohio Supreme Court races.
“The hope was you would just blindly go down the party line and vote,” she said. “The danger now is you’re politicizing your judiciary. … I don’t ever want any citizen in Ohio to go into a courtroom and say, ‘I wonder if that’s a Republican judge or a Democratic judge.’ If the law is on your side, you should win.”
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