Jennifer Lee Brunner is an American attorney, politician, and judge born on February 5, 1957. Currently, she serves as an associate justice of the Ohio Supreme Court, a position she earned after serving as a judge on Ohio's Tenth District Court of Appeals.
On June 8, 2021, Brunner announced her candidacy for Chief Justice of the Ohio Supreme Court in the November 8, 2022, general election. Brunner is a member of the Democratic Party and previously served as the Ohio Secretary of State, becoming the first woman to hold this position. She took office after sixteen years of Republican control, which included two four-year terms by her predecessor J. Kenneth Blackwell, who oversaw the 2000 and 2004 United States elections.
Brunner served only a single term as Secretary of State and made an unsuccessful bid for the U.S. Senate in 2010 when it came time for re-election. Prior to being elected Secretary of State, Brunner worked in the Ohio Secretary of State's Office and served as a County Judge in Franklin County, Ohio.
She also owned her own private practice, focusing on election law and campaign finance law. During her private practice career, she represented a broad range of candidates, businesses, political parties, and committees before the Ohio Elections Commission on quasi-criminal matters.
