This story will be updated.
Voters have cast their ballots in the hotly contested Summit County Common Pleas judge Democratic primary race between incumbent Judge Kelly McLaughlin and attorney L. Mialon Morris.
Polls closed at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, May 5. Summit County Board of Elections’ unofficial results show McLaughlin is in the lead with 11,892 votes. Morris is behind with 7,334 votes.
McLaughlin is fighting to keep her seat after the Summit County Democratic Party withdrew its nomination in favor of Morris. The ensuing campaign saw party infighting and accusations that each candidate was not a true Democrat.
Both Democratic candidates bring different perspectives to the table. McLaughlin has over 30 years of legal experience, including eight years on the bench focused on recidivism. Morris is a defense attorney of nine years who was not expected to go into law. She wants to focus on mental health and substance abuse if elected.
The winner will go on to face Republican attorney John Greven in the November general election. Greven ran unopposed for his party’s nomination.
Judge Kelly McLaughlin
A Mogadore native, McLaughlin has worked in nearly every corner of law, including criminal defense, juvenile cases, federal courts and labor law.
She spent six years as a Domestic Relations Court magistrate before becoming the chief magistrate. As a guardian ad litem, she advocated for the best interests of children in domestic cases, a role she credits with sparking her interest in becoming a judge.
Since taking the bench in 2018, McLaughlin presided over more than 15,5000 cases. That number includes criminal and civil cases and bench and jury trials.
“Every single case that comes in front of me is the most important thing in the world to them,” McLaughlin said of the defendants, victims, advocates, families and more who appear before her.
Although her job requires her to hand down punishments and justice, McLaughlin said she also wants to help people through interventions and programming that address mental health and substance abuse. This, she said, reduces recidivism and prevents new crime.
She said this work is highlighted in her specialty court called SCORR: Summit County Offender Recidivism Reduction. If re-elected, McLaughlin wants to redouble her efforts on addressing recidivism through mental health and substance abuse help.
Attorney L. Mialon Morris
An Akron native, Morris said she scraped by for most of her life. Her father sold drugs. Her mother was a hairstylist. No one told her she could do more.
In Atlanta, she bounced between jobs and enrolled in vocational school, becoming a paralegal. There, her teachers pushed her to do more. Eventually, she earned an associate’s degree and a bachelor’s degree before law school.
While at Florida Coastal School of Law, she had top grades. At one point, though, she was arrested for driving under the influence and possessing marijuana, Morris explained. She completed the court-ordered programming and had the charges erased.
“You can make mistakes, but your mistakes don’t have to define you,” Morris said. “If you are willing to do what it takes to make the changes in your life, anything is possible.”
Back in Akron, she wanted to uplift the community. As a defense attorney, she helps her clients “be better and do better.” This means helping with mental health issues and substance abuse, which she does in the Turning Point specialty court drug program.
If elected, she wants to focus on the root causes of crime by addressing substance abuse and mental health.
Democratic infighting questioned the party loyalty of both candidates
McLaughlin’s reelection campaign kicked off to a rocky start after the party withdrew her endorsement. It came after the party chair questioned her loyalty when she voted for a Republican in an election among her peers on the bench for administrative judge.
Akron Beacon Journal reporting shows that judges of both parties have historically routinely crossed party lines in such votes.
McLaughlin also accused the Democratic Party chair of bribery, a claim that is now in the hands of the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation, according to the Akron Police Department.
Morris, who said she didn’t know the circumstances of the race she was entering, has also faced accusations that she is not sufficiently a Democrat. That criticism cites her voting record on the Summit County Board of Elections website, which lists no party affiliation.
The website shows no affiliation because she had not historically voted in primaries, Morris explained. She has voted for Democrats, but her upbringing, she said, did not prioritize voting.
More recently, a flyer paid for by the Truth Coalition PAC listed a “Criminal Rap Sheet” that contained inaccuracies. Morris, a Black woman, described it as “racist propaganda.” Although the flyer was circulated on social media, it was never meant to be shared, and it was not mailed or distributed to voters, said Andy Padrutt, the PAC’s treasurer.
McLaughlin distanced herself from the flyer, saying her campaign had “absolutely no involvement in, coordination with, or prior knowledge of that material.”
In the same statement, she condemned racism “in any form” and called for civility.
Bryce Buyakie is an Akron-based reporter who covers the courts and public safety for the Beacon Journal. He can be reached by email at bbuyakie@gannett.com or on X @bryce_buyakie.
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Democratic candidates vie for Summit County Common Pleas judge nomination
Reporting by Bryce Buyakie, Akron Beacon Journal / Akron Beacon Journal
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