Wende Cross seeks reelection to Hamilton County bench

Judge Wende Cross is running for reelection to the Hamilton County Common Pleas Court General Division in the Nov. 3 general election. The nonpartisan race is for the term commencing Feb. 12.

Cross has been certified for the ballot, according to BallotReady. She was first elected to the bench in November 2020 by what the Ohio Black Judges Association described as an overwhelming majority vote in Hamilton County. She serves as a General Division judge on the Common Pleas Court.

Candidate information

Office sought: Hamilton County Common Pleas Court Judge, General Division (Term Commencing 2/12)
Party: Nonpartisan
Education: Bachelor's degree in political science, Miami University (1988); juris doctor, Northern Kentucky University (1992)
Bar memberships: Ohio and Kentucky bars
Professional affiliations: Cincinnati Bar Association Board of Trustees; CBA Professionalism Committee, according to the Ohio Black Judges Association
Community affiliations: Madisonville Community Council; Black Lawyers Association of Cincinnati; Impact 100; NAACP; Christ Emmanuel Christian Fellowship, according to Cross's candidate response on the University of Akron's Judicial Votes Count project

Experience and public service

Cross spent nine years as a federal prosecutor. She worked as an associate attorney at Landrum and Shouse LLP from 1992 to 1995, according to the Ohio Black Judges Association. She then served as an assistant United States attorney in the Eastern District of Kentucky from 1995 to 2002 and in the Southern District of Ohio from 2002 to 2004, according to the same source.

After leaving the U.S. Attorney's Office, Cross taught as an adjunct professor at Salmon P. Chase College of Law at Northern Kentucky University from 2004 to 2007, according to BallotReady. She was managing partner at Cross, Smith & Associates Co., LPA from 2005 to 2008 and managing attorney at W.C. Cross Law, LLC from 2008 to 2012, according to BallotReady.

Cross served as a magistrate at Hamilton County Juvenile Court beginning in 2012 before winning election to the Common Pleas bench in 2020.

On the issues

Cross did not return the Montgomery-Blue Ash Courier's candidate questionnaire. No policy positions or issue statements from Cross appear in public candidate-response databases.