aligned
Summit County, OH ballot

Joe Darwal

Judge of the Court of Common Pleas (General Division) (Full term commencing 5-1-2027) · Summit County, Ohio · November 3, 2026

Also on the ballot: Joy Malek Oldfield

Joe Darwal (Joseph James Darwal) is a Westfield Insurance casualty-litigation attorney and the Republican-primary nominee challenging incumbent Joy Malek Oldfield. He previously ran for a different Common Pleas seat in 2024 and lost, and the Akron Bar Association rated him "Adequate" for 2026.

What this office decides

General Division judges of the Summit County Court of Common Pleas preside over felony criminal cases, civil lawsuits over $15,000, foreclosures, and some appeals from state agencies. They set bond and sentence people convicted of felonies. Judges serve six-year terms and appear on the general-election ballot without party labels, though they are nominated in party primaries.

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 mention of Donald Trump found in connection with this nonpartisan county judicial race.

Who they are

Joe Darwal (Joseph James Darwal) is the Republican candidate (per the May 2026 primary, unopposed) challenging incumbent Democrat Joy Malek Oldfield for this seat, commencing May 1, 2027 (Signal Akron; The Ballot Brief). He is not a judge; he works in casualty litigation at Westfield Insurance, is a trial attorney admitted to the Ohio bar in 2014, and previously was a law clerk for Summit County (The Ballot Brief; Signal Akron). He ran once before, for a different Common Pleas seat in 2024, losing to incumbent Judge Jennifer Towell (Signal Akron). The Akron Bar Association rated him "Adequate" for 2026, after rating him "Good" in 2024 (Akron Bar Association; Signal Akron).

Positions

  • Crime & policing: No public position found; no campaign website or candidate questionnaire response was located (The Ballot Brief).
  • Party politics in courts and agencies: No public statement found; ran in a partisan Republican primary but will appear without a party label on the general-election ballot, under Ohio's system for electing Common Pleas judges (Ballotpedia).

Record

Not a sitting judge; professional and electoral history is described above. Also coaches the University of Akron debate team (Signal Akron). Akron Bar Association 2026 rating: Adequate (Akron Bar Association).

Money

No campaign finance filings located within this research session. Judicial candidates file with the Ohio Secretary of State (ohiosos.gov/campaign-finance).

Recent news

  • 2026-05-05: Ran unopposed for the Republican nomination for this seat (Signal Akron).
  • 2026-09: Certified for the Nov. 3 ballot against incumbent Joy Malek Oldfield (The Ballot Brief).

What we couldn't find

  • No campaign website or questionnaire response located.
  • No campaign finance data.
  • No news coverage from the last year specific to this campaign beyond election-administration articles.
Sources (6)