Nicole L. Sanders is seeking reelection to the Drug Court Division of Hamilton County’s Court of Common Pleas in the Nov. 3, 2026, general election.
The Board of Elections’ Oct. 16 certified list lists Sanders as the only candidate for that division’s term beginning Jan. 3, 2027. It records her Democratic affiliation.
Experience
Her campaign biography says she took the judicial bench on Jan. 2, 2021. Her April 2013 appointment was as a Juvenile Court magistrate, a different role.
The biography lists undergraduate and law degrees from the University of Cincinnati. It describes prior work as a Cincinnati assistant city prosecutor, assistant city solicitor, chief counsel in the city law department and prosecutor in Municipal Court’s mental-health docket.
Approach to the court
Sanders describes her approach as combining legal knowledge with fairness, compassion and treatment-oriented work. Her campaign emphasizes experience with people dealing with addiction and her leadership of the adult drug-treatment court.
Her biography also lists the 2022 Champions of Recovery Award, a 2010 Cincinnati Academy of Leadership for Lawyers fellowship and a 2023 Ohio State Bar Foundation fellowship.
Correction: Earlier versions incorrectly dated Sanders’ service as a Drug Court judge to 2013. Her campaign biography identifies 2021 as the start of that judicial service.
