Ohio's Supreme Chessboard: Fischer Moves, DeWine Appoints
Is DeWine Setting Up a Last-Minute Power Grab on Ohio’s Supreme Court?
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As Ohio Governor Mike DeWine anticipates the inevitable end of his over 45 year political career, an attempt at a potential last minute Supreme Court seat appointment could be his lasting legacy.
Meet Pat Fischer, Justice on the Ohio Supreme Court. His career path includes serving on the Hamilton County Court of Appeals from 2000 to 2011 before returning to private practice until his initial Supreme Court run in 2016. Fischer won a narrow election, winning over 50.28% of voting Ohioans against Democrat Justice John O’Donnell to begin his first six year term. Notably, this was before partisan labels were added to Supreme Court races, so the endorsement of individuals like DeWine and the Ohio Republican Party helped boost his name statewide.
In 2022, after party labels were added to the ballot, Pat Fischer was re-elected to the Supreme Court by a wider margin, this time getting 56% of the vote. He defeated Democrat Court of Appeals Judge Terri Jamison to begin his second six year term. At the completion of this term in 2028, Justice Fischer will be 74 years old. For those unaware, in the state of Ohio, Supreme Court Justices cannot take office after reaching the age of seventy (A-IV, S6, ORC).
In the 2026 election, Democrats will be defending their last Supreme Court seat, a seat currently held by former Secretary of State, Justice Jennifer Brunner (D). With partisan labels on the ballot, this is an all-but-guaranteed election win for the GOP, so the thought of running for this seat has entered the mind of many in the Ohio law arena. So far, both former Judge Colleen O’Donnel (R-Grandview Heights) and current Court of Appeals Judge Andrew King (R-Granville) have thrown their hats in the ring, and Judge Ron Lewis (R-Greene County) is being floated as a potential candidate.
You’re probably asking yourself, what is the correlation of anything I’ve discussed up-until now? Well, on January 1, 2027, when Justice Brunner’s court term is up, Justice Fischer will be sixty-nine years old, allowing him to complete one more term on the state’s highest court before he is aged-out.
In short, Justice Fischer appears poised to run for Justice Brunner’s seat while still serving, positioning himself to serve two more years before mandatory retirement.
Some may ask: Josh, How is this a DeWine power grab? To put it simply, if Fischer vacates his seat on the Supreme Court before the end of his term, DeWine gets to hand pick his replacement. Not only will Fischer get another two years on the court, keeping a new elected face from serving, but DeWine also gets a chance to repay political favors on his way out of the door.
According to Ohio Conservatives PAC, an organization I am not associated with, they’ve been told “DeWine’s preference [to fill Fischer’s seat] is long time DeWine family friend and Court of Appeals judge Ron Lewis who was appointed to that position by DeWine.” A keen-eyed commenter on the PAC’s Facebook said, “I’m hearing that Mike DeWine wants to appoint his daughter Alice DeWine to the seat that Judge Ron Lewis currently holds.”
I don’t dislike Justice Fischer, but it is not an accurate assessment to describe him as a hardline constitutional conservative Republican. He led to the rewriting of the 2023 abortion amendment language to favor the abortion groups, and also aligned with the liberal justices on decisions regarding judicial misconduct and workers’ compensation.
If you’re an Ohio voter and you’re fine with this solution, vote for Pat Fischer in May 2026. If you’re an Ohio voter and you want a say in who our next Republican to serve on the court will be, throw your support behind any of the other candidates.
I heard Judge King speak at the Madison County GOP meeting last month, and he put it pretty simple: ‘If you like Justice Fischer and you like me, vote for me and you get us both.’ (Not an exact quote, but the sentiment is there.)
Most likely, this race will come down to the Ohio Republican Party State Central Committee, which is the governing body of the Ohio GOP. Traditionally, the SCC makes an early primary endorsement in judicial races, hand selecting who Ohioans will get to vote for in both the primary and general elections. To prevent this game of judicial musical chairs, voters should contact their State Central Committee representatives [the most recent contact list I know of can be found here] and to encourage either a vote against endorsements entirely, or in support of endorsing one of the other qualified judges for the seat. State Central Committee members are assigned based on State Senate districts.
The need for primary endorsements in judicial races is no longer. Now that voters know the party affiliation as soon as they look at a ballot, the need for over twelve months of campaigning with the “Republican Endorsed” banner has lapsed. When given the opportunity, let the voters decide. And that goes for the Governor, the Justice, the State Central Committee, and anyone else attempting to take away the voice of Ohioans.
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