YOUNGSTOWN — Appeals court Judge Marilyn Zayas, a Democrat who lost a 2022 race for an Ohio Supreme Court seat, said she is going to run again next year for a position on the state’s highest court.

First elected in 2016 to the Cincinnati-based 1st District Court of Appeals, Zayas will challenge incumbent Justice Dan Hawkins, a Republican who won a 2024 election for an unexpired term, getting 55% of the vote.

Hawkins, who was a Franklin County Common Pleas Court judge before winning the Supreme Court seat, is running for reelection to a full six-year term.

Zayas said in her Tuesday announcement: “Now is the time to stand up for Ohio. We need accountability, not party politics.”

But party politics has played a significant factor in Ohio Supreme Court races, particularly since the Republican-controlled state Legislature passed a law, effective with the 2022 election, requiring party affiliation on the ballot for those running for seats on the court of appeals and the Ohio Supreme Court.

Before that, candidates ran in party primaries and then didn’t have political affiliation in the general election.

Since then, Republicans have won every judicial race for the Ohio Supreme Court.

Zayas ran in 2022 as the Democratic nominee against incumbent Justice Pat DeWine, a Republican. DeWine got 56.31% of the vote to 43.69% for Zayas.

“At a time when confidence in our judiciary is eroding, independence is essential,” Zayas said Tuesday. “Together, we can make the Ohio Supreme Court a beacon of integrity and accountability, free from outside influence. I enter this race as a judge whose record has earned trust across political lines.”

The lone Democrat remaining on the seven-member Ohio Supreme Court is Jennifer Brunner, elected in 2020 before party affiliation was included on the ballot.

Brunner is running next year for reelection. She lost the 2022 election for the court’s chief justice to Republican Sharon L. Kennedy, who was also a sitting justice at the time. Kennedy received 56.1% of the vote to 43.9% for Brunner.

At least four Republicans plan to run in the party’s May primary to challenge Brunner in the general election.