Cynthia Curtin

Republican

Judge of the Court of Appeals (9th District) (Full term commencing 2-9-2027) · Summit County, Ohio · November 3, 2026

Also on the ballot: Betty Sutton (Democratic)

Cynthia Curtin is a Republican challenger and longtime Hudson civil-litigation attorney who briefly served as a gubernatorially appointed Stow Municipal Court judge in 2025 and now works as a Summit County magistrate. She argues party labels on judicial ballots give voters useful information, the opposite of incumbent Betty Sutton's position.

What this office decides

Ohio's Ninth District Court of Appeals hears appeals from trial courts in Summit, Medina, Lorain, and Wayne counties, in panels of three judges. It decides most criminal, civil, family, and administrative appeals from those courts, and its rulings stand unless the Ohio Supreme Court takes the case. Judges are elected with party labels to six-year terms.

How this race lines up with you

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Dossier

Researched 2026-09-23 · Claude Code research agent with web search

Donald Trump: nothing found. No Trump endorsement or criticism of this candidate was found in searches covering this race.

Who they are

Curtin does not hold this seat — incumbent Betty Sutton does (Ballotpedia). A Hudson attorney with about 35 years of civil-litigation experience, she ran her own Akron firm, Curtin Law LLC, 2003–2023, before joining Perez Morris in Cleveland (Curtin for Judge). DeWine appointed her to a Stow Municipal Court vacancy in June 2025; she now calls herself a former Stow judge and current Summit County Domestic Relations Court magistrate (Court News Ohio; Curtin for Judge).

Positions

Party politics in courts and agencies: Views party labels on judicial ballots as "useful voter information," opposite Sutton's nonpartisan-courts view, per a Cleveland.com interview (Cleveland.com via NewsBreak).
Crime & policing: No public position found; she left an iVoterGuide questionnaire on criminal-justice topics unanswered (iVoterGuide).
Business & regulation, Voting rules: No public position found.

Record

No rulings as an appellate judge; her record is 35 years as a civil litigator, plus about a year as a municipal court judge in 2025 (Curtin for Judge). Akron Bar Association rating: "ADEQUATE," one step below Sutton's "GOOD" (Akron Bar Association).

Money

Curtin has personally donated to Republican candidates and committees — Moreno, Coughlin, Timken, Roegner, local GOP groups — but has received no documented contributions as a candidate (iVoterGuide). No fundraising total was found in state records.

What we couldn't find

No answers to iVoterGuide's policy questionnaire.
No 2026 campaign finance total.
No named endorsements (an "Endorsements" page is linked on her campaign site but lists none).

Sources (8)