Rep.-elect Don Leonard arrives at freshman orientation at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on Nov. 9. Photo: Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
Rep.-elect Don Leonard (D-Ohio) hasn’t been sworn in yet, but he’s making a name for himself on Capitol Hill as one of the most outspoken anti-establishment progressives in the incoming freshman class.
Why it matters: That’s an unlikely position for a Democrat who represents a rural Ohio district that President Trump carried by 10 percentage points in 2024.
- Leonard is archetypal of a burgeoning breed of swing-district House Democrats — populist in style, receptive to left-wing policies and unbound by traditional political norms — that will be well-represented in the 120th Congress.
- “I’m really vibing with my class,” he told Axios in a Tuesday interview on Capitol Hill. “These are everyday citizens who heard the same call I heard and stood up.”
- Leonard, a professor of city planning who defeated Republican Rep. Mike Carey in last Tuesday’s midterm elections, was turning heads on Capitol Hill before he even arrived for freshman orientation on Sunday.
He told his local CBS affiliate the day after the election he will “be shopping for a new leader” unless House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) changes his pro-Israel positions.
- He made an even bigger splash on Tuesday with a video he posted to social media saying he met with “senior members” who warned him his life would be a “living hell” and that he would lose reelection if he opposes Jeffries for speaker of the House.
- House Democratic Caucus chair Pete Aguilar (D-Calif.), asked about Leonard’s video at a press conference Tuesday afternoon, told reporters, “I don’t know what senior Democrats he’s talking about.”
- “I think all of us here can attest to the work, the time, the energy that Hakeem Jeffries put into helping us build this majority,” Aguilar said.
- Aguilar predicted Jeffries will be “overwhelmingly selected” as speaker and that he doesn’t “lose any sleep over that.”
- “Members could have ideas and interests and they could have asks along the way, but the outcome is not in question,” he added.
Leonard, in his interview with Axios later on Tuesday afternoon, characterized the conversation described in his video as a “friendly” and “well-intentioned” talk with “folks who have been on the Hill for a really long time.”
- “They let me know that while we all agree on a lot of this stuff … the leader is going to pursue his message and agenda as he sees fit, and [said], ‘Don’t be insane. How could you possibly stand in the way?’”
- In addition to cutting U.S. aid for Israel, Leonard said he wants Jeffries to commit to supporting a Constitutional amendment to ban super PACs.
- “The time for half-measures is over,” he told Axios. “I hear people, even members of the Progressive Caucus, talking about, ‘Maybe we just tax super PACs.’ Y’all, we need a 28th Amendment.”
Leonard said he has also found himself irked by House Democrats’ seniority system, which makes it difficult for freshman members to get onto some of the most coveted committees.
- “I’m just a little confused and frustrated right now by why the Democratic caucus is so hierarchical when it comes to these committees,” he told Axios.
- Leonard added: “When we’re less democratic than the Republican Party … that raises questions for me.”
The Ohio Democrat said he got a chance to meet Jeffries for the first time on Tuesday and arrange for their staffers to work out a time to sit down and talk.
- “I shook his hand and I asked him for six minutes,” he said, telling Axios he wants to “look him in the eye, let him know that [I] respect his capacity as a leader … but I need something to take back to my district that shows that my party understands the magnitude of the crisis we face.”
- “I’m going to hope that I can persuade him in the six minutes that we don’t have to cross that bridge, but my constituents aren’t bluffing and neither am I.”
- Leonard also demanded an end to U.S. support for “Israel’s genocide in Gaza” and the “illegal war in Iran, which is draining American pocketbooks, the American treasury and putting American service members at risk.”
- His pushback comes as a Change.org petition urging House members to choose a new speaker who represents all Democratic voters, “not just the Democratic establishment,” has reached more than 1.1 million signatures.
- Jeffries has a long-standing political and financial relationship with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and other pro-Israel organizations, which has drawn both support and criticism within the Democratic Party.
- AXIOS
