MOUNT VERNON — Hope and optimism were palpable as the party faithful gathered on Friday night for the Knox County Democratic Party’s annual dinner.
The event drew around 100 people to the Glenn A. Gallagher Centre to hear a keynote speech from Ohio Supreme Court Justice Jennifer Brunner.
Brunner is in the final year of her first term on the Ohio Supreme Court and running for re-election in November.
She served as Secretary of State from 2007 to 2011 but did not run for re-election, instead running for the Senate.
Referencing the schism it caused in the party, Brunner said she did it for women.
“There have only been five women who have held statewide executive office in their own right since 1803,” she said.
“When women ran for the U.S. Senate in times prior, like Mary Boyle, no woman ever ran for the U.S. Senate from a position of currently holding a statewide office. So I felt that it was my duty to do that.”
Republican Judge Sharon Kennedy defeated Brunner in a bid for chief justice in 2022. Brunner credits her loss to the “gerrymandered Republican legislature,” which passed legislation putting party affiliation on the ballot.
In 2023, Brunner filed a lawsuit challenging the statute on the grounds it violated the First Amendment.
“That party label gives people an impression that you think this way or you don’t think that way, but judges aren’t supposed to walk around telling what their political beliefs are,” she said.
“Because you’re going to think when you go into court with your case that that judge already has that opinion written before they’ve ever heard the facts of the case or apply the law to those facts.”
‘Last Democrat in Ohio’
After losing the 2022 chief justice election, Brunner decided to get a PhD.
That turned out to be the impetus for running for re-election in November.
While researching the repatriation of the Dahomey royal treasures from France to Benin, she realized the people loved the country’s last king, Bihanzen, more than his grandfather, who had ended the country’s involvement in the slave trade.
“The director of the library said, well, of course, he was the last king in all of West Africa to stand up to the French,” Brunner said. “I went, oh my gosh. You’re the last Democrat left in Ohio. So I needed to run.”
Brunner’s focus is on changing the gerrymandering process.
“Anyone who’s been in politics for a long time understands that if you are rotten at the core, which is what gerrymandering is, nothing is going to go the way that you need it to,” she said.
Brunner concluded by saying the rule of law enables Americans to pursue happiness, as written in the Declaration of Independence.
“The rule of law is a concept. … We know that it’s how we resolve our disputes. … It’s what gives us a peaceful society and what allows for the peaceful transfer of power for a government that works for us and not against us.”
Brunner said voters have to fight for this rule of law.
“What I want you to remember is when you start to get weary and when you start to say, I can’t believe what I’ve seen, we cannot let the hate or the fear that we see out there change us,” she said.
Contested Secretary of State race
State Rep. Allison Russo and Bryan Hambley are on the Democratic primary ballot for Secretary of State.
In her eighth year in the Ohio General Assembly, Russo said she never planned to run for office.
Her motivation came on Election Night 2016. Distraught and concerned for the country, she promised her daughter that “it is not enough for me to be an engaged and informed voter. … I have to get off of the sidelines.”
Russo said her job as secretary of state is to:
•Advocate for voters.
•Ensure access to direct democracy.
•Work with all 88 boards of elections and make sure that they have the resources, guidance, transparency, and consistency needed to administer elections.
“But it is the legislature that establishes the rules of our election process through state law,” she said.
Russo said it’s important to have experience with how the legislature operates and to have been in the trenches.
Hambley, a “leukemia doctor living in Cincinnati,” said his day job reminds him that everybody cares about their own health and the health of their communities.
He said the Secretary of State can do that by:
•Drawing fair districts.
•Writing honest, valid language on a constitutional amendment.
•Making it easy and fair for every Ohio citizen to vote.
He noted that he and Russo will make their best case for winning the May primary, but pointed out that the winner will run against incumbent Robert Sprague.
“We need an outsider. People in Ohio are tired of doing the same old thing. This is a rebuilding job. … I’ve done rebuilding jobs,” he said.
State representative candidates: Scott Grund and Vince McGrail
Grund grew up in Middletown, a town where neighbors always helped neighbors and volunteers were plentiful. He is running for the District 98 state representative seat.
“Elected officials served everybody, whether they voted for them or gave them money, didn’t make any difference. I want to do the same type of thing in this area by following a toolbox of experience that I have over my entire life,” Grund said.
That toolbox includes listening, something he said is missing among current House representatives.
The financial advisor, paralegal, and Red Cross volunteer said he wants to research rather than take everything for granted, and then act.
He also wants to focus on mental health, something he said needs to be at the forefront.
Vince McGrail is on the ballot for the District 61 state rep position.
McGrail retired two weeks ago from a 43-year tenure as executive director of the Alzheimer’s Association covering 43 counties.
“I’ve seen volunteers from across the state come together with completely different political views to work together for a cause they care about. That’s what I’d like to bring to this district and to the statehouse,” he said.
Realizing that his children did not have the hope he had at their ages was the catalyst for his candidacy.
“We need to flip six districts in the House to stop the super majority where they can pass bills to limit mail-in ballots with the grace period that Allison Russo talked about,” he said.
“Here are two districts here that you can help us flip: 98 and 61.”
Building something better
Jerrad Christian is running a second time for the U.S. Congress in Ohio’s 12th district.
He said he is running because “if there’s one thing that none of us have had in a very long time, it’s representation.”
Christian said he believes in the heart of America, the Constitution, and the theories and the thoughts of the founding fathers, who wanted something better than what the world had to offer, so they built it.
“That’s what I want to do with all of you in this room. I want to build something better, something meaningful, something that my son can inherit,” he said.
Christian noted that, in his 42 years, no Democrat has been governor of Ohio.
He encouraged Democrats to stand up and say there is enough cutting of Medicare, Medicaid, and veterans’ benefits. It is time to build hospitals and schools, and fix child care and health care.
“So when you’re reflecting on the things that you can do, the community that you can build, talk to your neighbor,” he said.
“We can do more for our community. We can build up, we can build back, we can build better, and we can have hope.”
Electing accountable leaders
Appeals Court Judge Marilyn Zayas and Sherrod Brown spoke to the group via video.
Zayas is on November’s ballot for the Ohio Supreme Court.
The daughter of a Puerto Rican immigrant, Zayas said her mother believed in the American dream and poured it into her children.
She said she is running for the Supreme Court because, during her 10 years on the bench, she has seen people losing faith in the courts due to politics.
“We cannot have that. The courts is the one branch of the government that should be independent,” she said. “It really isn’t about red, nor is it about blue. When we talk about fairness, fairness is about integrity, and integrity is completely intertwined with courage.”
Zayas said she believes Ohio understands that residents need to come together, put politics aside, and elect accountable leaders.
Brown is a former U.S. senator running to unseat Republican Sen. Jon Husted in November.
The Mansfield native did not plan to run for office again but said he and his wife “knew we couldn’t stay on the sidelines with what was happening to our country.”
“I’m inspired to see that none of you are giving up, either. That’s what everyone here has in common. We know that life can be better for Ohioans, for Americans in the Midwest and all over the country,” he said.
Brown said Ohio workers have no one in the Senate who fights for them.
“When I was in the Senate, whenever I worked on a bill or an amendment, I pictured someone in Ohio who might benefit from that,” he said.
Filled with hope
Local veteran Democrat Sam Barone said he is filled with hope, even though the party recently lost party stalwart Jesse Jackson.
Because of that hope, in lieu of a moment of silence for Jackson, Barone led the group in the cheer “Keep hope alive!”
Brunner also acknowledged the future.
“I love seeing these newer candidates that we haven’t seen ever before and looking at their zeal and their hopefulness and their dedication to something greater than the rest of us,” she said.
The event concluded with party chair Kathy Tate awarding Janet Byrne Smith the Volunteer of the Year award.
