But What Can You Do? tracks where 2026 candidates stand on U.S. weapons and funding for the government of Israel. How we check
Don Leonard
Democrat · U.S. House, Ohio District 15
✓Opposes
How this mark works
We track key votes on sending U.S. weapons and money to the government of Israel. A check means every tracked vote they cast came down against sending more, on the side of peace and de-escalation. A question mark means a mixed record: they sided with sending up to half of the time. An X means they voted to send more weapons and money in over half of their tracked votes, even as the way those weapons and dollars were being used became more and more obvious. At exactly half, money this election cycle from a lobbying group we track, or an endorsement from a group that backs sending weapons, makes it an X. Only votes actually cast are counted. Where a candidate has no recorded votes on these bills, the mark comes instead from a reviewed reading of their public record (money from the lobbying groups we track, endorsements, and their own words since January 26, 2024). There an X also covers fully backing the conduct of the war by the government of Israel without significant reservations, and a question mark also covers speaking about Israel without saying clearly where they stand on U.S. weapons and funding. A dash means No Position Found: we found nothing in their own words about Israel, Gaza or the war.
Two reviewers, reading the public record as a whole, agree: Asked what settled whether Gaza is a genocide, his own answer adopts that conclusion, and nothing in his words says weapons should keep flowing; the offensive-weapons halt is only the write-up's summary and does not count on its own. Reviewed by hand on 2026-10-01. This candidate has no recorded tracked floor votes.
Leonard said he would support halting U.S. offensive weapons exports to Israel during its operations in Gaza, and said of pro-Israel lobbying money: "We would never accept money from AIPAC."
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Leonard is a Democratic candidate for Ohio's 15th District, a former Peace Corps volunteer who taught at Ohio State.
In a March 2026 interview with the Hilliard Beacon, the write-up records that he "said he would support halting U.S. offensive weapons exports to Israel during ongoing military operations in Gaza and pledged independence from pro-Israel lobbying groups." Asked directly about accepting funding tied to AIPAC, he answered: "We would never accept money from AIPAC." An automatic transcript of the episode, which may mis-hear words, gives more of his answer. By that transcript, asked whether he would back the Block the Bombs Act controlling arms sales to Israel, he tied a halt to offensive U.S. weapons exports to Israel to an end of what he called the genocidal operations in Gaza and of settler violence in the West Bank. Later in the same conversation he said the United States has to fundamentally rethink its relationship with the state of Israel until there is a pathway to a viable two-state solution. He also described an Israeli tank shelling an IVF clinic in Gaza as one of the canonical definitions of genocide.
In an April 2026 interview he discussed how to classify the conflict, weighing an act of war against crimes against humanity against genocide. Asked what settled it for him, he said: "What brings me clarity is that my Jewish wife is telling me, yes, it is a genocide, right? Yes, it's an apartheid state." A critic has argued that in the same interview he moved from those distinctions to describing conditions in Gaza in terms of the Warsaw ghetto, and has written a published essay objecting to how he reached his conclusion. The research section records both his words and that objection.
He has no federal voting record.
The money
Checked the five lobbying groups we track; no direct 2026 support found
2026 support from the five lobbying groups we track
Nothing recorded (as of 2026-07-23) from the five lobbying groups we track; earlier cycles and earmarked donations not yet tracked.
Support-only OpenFEC data. Opposition independent expenditures are excluded.
The notes behind this card: what we looked at, what we found, and where each item came from.
U.S. military aid and weapons to Israel
[Position, 2026-03-06] Hilliard Beacon interview write-up: "Leonard said he would support halting U.S. offensive weapons exports to Israel during ongoing military operations in Gaza and pledged independence from pro-Israel lobbying groups." That sentence is the write-up's summary of his position rather than a quotation of him, and the card marks the distinction by attributing it to the interview.
[Position, 2026-03-06] The episode page carries an automatic transcript of the episode, made 2026-03-05, which may mis-hear words; what follows is described from it, not quoted. At about 10:42 a host asks whether he would vote for the Block the Bombs Act, which controls arms sales to Israel. In his answer, as the transcript has it, he ties a halt to offensive U.S. weapons exports to Israel to an end of what he called the genocidal operations in Gaza and of the state-sponsored violence by settler militias in the West Bank. That matches the write-up's summary above that he would support halting such exports.
[Position, 2026-03-06; same transcript] Later in the episode he says the horror the Netanyahu government has inflicted on the people of Gaza should be a wake-up call, and that the United States has to fundamentally rethink its relationship with the state of Israel until there is a pathway to a viable two-state solution.
He has no federal voting record.
U.S. aid to Palestinians
No statement located.
Characterization of the conflict
[Position, 2026-03-06; same transcript] In the Hilliard Beacon episode he says that when he first declared he was asked whether it was a genocide and answered that he did not know, that he knew it was war crimes and a crime against humanity, and that his constituents encouraged him to read the independent UN reports. He then describes an Israeli tank firing a shell into an IVF clinic in Gaza and calls that one of the canonical definitions of genocide. Earlier in the episode he speaks of international students who showed up to protest what he called the genocide in Gaza.
[Position, 2026-04, as quoted in a third-party essay] Our research found an interview with a political commentator in which he weighed the distinctions between an "act of war," "crimes against humanity" and "genocide." The words located verbatim, in a July 2026 essay quoting that interview, are: "What brings me clarity is that my Jewish wife is telling me, yes, it is a genocide, right? Yes, it's an apartheid state."
**What is quoted and what is not.** The words "genocide" and "apartheid state" are, in that sentence, his account of what his wife told him rather than his own formulation, and this record does not convert them into his own words. What is his is the statement that her view brings him clarity. The primary interview was not located or opened; the quotation appears in the essay, which presents it as a direct quotation from the interview.
The same essay states that by the end of the interview "Leonard has traveled from cautious distinctions to the claim that Israelis are running a Warsaw ghetto." **That is the essayist's characterisation of where the interview arrived, not a quotation of Leonard**, and the underlying words were not located. It is recorded and not attributed to him as a quotation.
Related rhetoric and lobbying
[Position, 2026-03-06] "We would never accept money from AIPAC" (in the Hilliard Beacon write-up, which presents it as his direct answer to a question about AIPAC-linked funding). A campaign-funding pledge, recorded separately from his position on what the United States sends.
Safety and antisemitism (context)
This heading carries the record in full, per our standing rule of 2026-08-12 that nothing is suppressed and that behaviour is described rather than labelled.
[2026-07-07] An essay published on a Substack site, written under the initials J.S. and cited twice in our sources, objects to how Leonard reached his conclusions in the April 2026 interview. Its own framing is that he "reached for the oldest accusation," it describes his citing of his wife's view as using her "as a credential," and it argues he moved from cautious distinctions to a Warsaw ghetto comparison without acknowledging the distance travelled. **The essay applies a label; this record does not repeat it.** Under the standing rule the behaviour is described and quoted, the objection is recorded as an identified critic's published argument, and no verdict is offered here.
The essay also records the parts of his record it does not dispute: Peace Corps service and a decade teaching at Ohio State.
[Position, 2026-04, reported] In the same interview he recounted first connecting emotionally to Holocaust history. No verbatim span located.
Consulted
Ballotpedia. Four source entries in total, two of which are the same essay.
Note on what is missing
The April 2026 interview is the most consequential item on this record and **no source for it was located**. Everything known about it comes through an essay written to criticise it. A record of this kind should rest on the interview itself, and obtaining it is the obvious next step.
But What Can You Do? tracks where 2026 candidates stand on U.S. weapons and
funding for the government of Israel. Every claim on this page goes through at least two verification steps.
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