A New Democrat Says His Own Party Threatened Him With ‘a Living Hell’ Unless He Backs Jeffries

Don Leonard hasn’t been sworn in yet. He hasn’t cast a single vote. And he’s already accusing the leaders of his own party of strong-arming him.

Leonard is the Democrat who just won Ohio’s 15th District, a seat around Columbus and the farm counties to its south and west that Donald Trump carried by 10 points in 2024. He’s a former Ohio State professor, and he ran as what he called a “Do Something Democrat.” This week, in the middle of orientation for new members, he posted a video saying senior House Democrats had warned him what would happen if he kept holding out on Hakeem Jeffries for Speaker.

“Tonight I met with senior members of the Democratic House who told me in no uncertain terms,” Leonard said, that refusing to back Jeffries “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,” according to a transcript published by WOSU, Columbus’s public radio station.

“We kind of knew this stuff was coming. It’s part of the stuff you see in the movies,” he added, according to Newsweek. “It’s a whole other thing when it’s in person by people who actually care about you and are cheering for you but expect you to wear the team jersey and be a good team player.”

He didn’t name names. Jeffries’ office didn’t respond to WOSU.

What he wants before he’ll vote

Jeffries has no challenger. When the new Congress meets on Jan. 3, he is expected to become Speaker, and the first Black man to hold the job. So this isn’t a fight over who wins. It’s a fight over whether a brand-new member is allowed to make demands first.

Leonard has two. He wants Jeffries to back a constitutional amendment to undo Citizens United, the 2010 Supreme Court ruling that let corporations and unions spend freely on elections. And he wants the party to end U.S. support for the war with Iran and for Israel. He told Axios he wants an amendment to ban super PACs outright. “The time for half-measures is over,” he said. “Y’all, we need a 28th Amendment.”

On Wednesday he took it public on his own account.

That second demand is the one Republicans should pay attention to. Jeffries has long been one of the most reliably pro-Israel Democrats in the House. A freshman from a Trump district is now openly demanding the incoming Speaker walk away from Israel as the price of his vote, and he’s getting cheered for it on the left.

The leadership’s answer

House Democratic Caucus Chairman Pete Aguilar of California brushed it off. Asked about the video at a press conference, he said, “I don’t know what senior Democrats he’s talking about,” according to Axios. He predicted Jeffries will be “overwhelmingly selected” and said the members could have “ideas and interests” and “asks along the way, but the outcome is not in question.”

By the time Leonard sat down with Axios later, his story had softened a little. He called the talk “friendly” and “well-intentioned,” with “folks who have been on the Hill for a really long time.” Their message, as he told it: “the leader is going to pursue his message and agenda as he sees fit,” and “Don’t be insane. How could you possibly stand in the way?”

Then the pushback got personal. Jeffries’ younger brother, Hasan Kwame Jeffries, happens to teach history at Ohio State, Leonard’s old employer. On WOSU’s “All Sides” on Wednesday, he said Leonard should “name names” and knocked him for wanting powerful committee seats as a freshman. “What did you think as a freshman going in that you’re gonna do?” he asked. “That’s not the way Congress works.” He also argued that the House runs on seniority, not democracy.

The party’s left smells an opening

Leonard isn’t alone, and the left wing is already putting money behind him. Saikat Chakrabarti, the former chief of staff to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, started a fundraising push for incoming Democrats who won’t fall in line. He said it pulled in more than $50,000 in about 12 hours.

“Donate to them so they don’t have to worry about the establishment funding a primary against them,” Chakrabarti wrote on 𝕏. Leonard thanked him for “helping us fight the corrupting influence of money in our politics,” which is an interesting thing to say while thanking someone for raising you money.

The establishment is lining up on the other side. The New Democrat Coalition, a caucus of more than 100 members, put out a statement Wednesday saying Jeffries “is the right person at the right time to lead our party,” WOSU reported. Ohio Rep. Joyce Beatty is in his corner too.

Why a freshman’s video matters

For two years Democrats ran on protecting democracy. Now one of their own newcomers says he was told to vote the way leadership wants or have his career wrecked. Leonard put it in his own words: “At the end of the day, the big-D Democratic Party needs some little-d democracy.”

Jeffries will almost certainly get the gavel anyway. But a House majority is only as strong as its narrowest vote, and Leonard has shown the whole country how this one will be run before it has even started: the leader picks the agenda, and the new guys are expected to wear the jersey. Republicans in the minority will get plenty of chances to test how many Democrats are willing to take it off.