Rep.-elect Don Leonard (D-OH), who flipped a GOP-held House seat last week, dropped a bombshell Tuesday when he claimed that “senior” House Democrats had threatened to make his life “a living hell” if he bucked party leadership.
“It’s starting to get real over here,” Leonard said in a video he published on Instagram.
A first-time candidate and former Ohio State University professor whose political views have been categorized as progressive, Leonard has broken with party leadership on Israel and campaign finance.
He claimed to have conditioned his support for House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) on a constitutional amendment to end Citizens United and an end to U.S. support for Israel and the war in Iran. In July, Jeffries opposed a measure to halt military aid to Israel, and activists have targeted him over his close ties to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC.
In the video, Leonard said that “senior members of the Democratic House” told him “in no uncertain terms” that defying Jeffries’ bid for House speaker “would basically mean both making my life a living hell for the next two years here in Washington as well as being sure to lose my election in two years.”
“We kind of knew this stuff was coming, it’s part of the stuff you see in the movies — it’s a whole other thing when it’s in person,” Leonard said. “At the end of the day, the big D Democratic Party needs some little d democracy, and I’m just a stubborn SOB. Please wish me luck, it’s getting real here, y’all!”
Leonard pulled off an upset against Rep. Mike Carey (R-OH) in Ohio’s 15th Congressional District, one of three Republican seats Democratic challengers flipped in the state. Jeffries, who formally put himself forward for speaker in a letter to all members last week, remains the overwhelming favorite, and no House Democrat has stepped forward to challenge him.
Incoming Rep. Don Leonard says top House Democrats have threatened to “make [his] life a living hell” and cost him re-election if he continues attaching conditions to his support for Hakeem Jeffries for speaker. His conditions: 1) a vote on an amendment to end Citizens United and 2) “end U.S. support for the war in Iran and the country, Israel, that led us into it.”He says Jeffries is refusing to meet with him and the threats are like something “out of a movie.” — Ryan Grim (@ryangrim) November 10, 2026
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