Credit: John G for The Marshall Project

Ohio’s Constitution and state laws lay out rules for judicial candidates.

Common Pleas judges serve six-year terms. Candidates elected in 2024 would earn $163,792 in 2025. Common Pleas candidates run in primary races where they declare a political party affiliation, if they have one. The general election race is nonpartisan, and no political party is listed on the ballot.  

To run for the bench in the general or juvenile division of the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas, candidates must:

  • Live in Cuyahoga County.
  • Be no older than 69 on the day they would assume office.
  • Be licensed as an attorney in Ohio for at least 1 year.
  • Practice as a lawyer or judge for at least 6 years.
  • File 50 voter signatures 90 days before the primary election, if running as a Democrat or Republican. Independent candidates must file 90 days before the general election.

In addition, judicial candidates have campaign requirements and restrictions other political candidates do not. For example:

  • Judicial candidates can donate to, but may not endorse, other political candidates. They also can’t hold a position in a political party.
  • They can’t talk publicly, including while campaigning, about topics that could affect a pending legal matter in any U.S. court.  
  • Campaign contributions for Ohio judicial candidates are capped at $650 from a person and $4,100 from organizations for primary and general elections. Political parties’ contributions are capped at $40,800 for contested primaries and $81,700 in general elections.

Doug Livingston is a staff writer for The Marshall Project - Cleveland. Livingston joined The Marshall Project after 12 years as a reporter with the Akron Beacon Journal. He’s covered everything from city government, education and politics to criminal justice and policing. His reporting, consistently supported with data and community engagement, has covered systemic issues of insecure housing and rising evictions, lax state laws for charter schools, poverty, gun violence, police accountability, homelessness and more.

The Marshall Project is a nonpartisan, nonprofit news organization that seeks to create and sustain a sense of national urgency about the U.S. criminal justice system. Through a partnership with Signal Cleveland, The Marshall Project is weaving more resident voices into its reporting and building an understanding about how the justice system works — and doesn’t work — in Cleveland.