Ohio Democrat field organizers were caught on undercover video laughing about shoplifting and telling volunteers to cast themselves as “victims of society” when talking to voters.
Footage obtained by Breitbart News shows organizers with OhioWins, the Ohio Democrat Party’s main field program for federal and state candidates, mixing petty-theft banter with identity talking points during a canvassing training session.
An undercover journalist sat in on the training. What followed was not a lecture on door-knocking etiquette. It was a mix of theft stories and coaching on how to turn personal identity into a campaign tool.
Harrison Crone, an Ohio Democrat field organizer on the tape, walked volunteers through the approach. Julie Ellis, also identified as Julia Ellis and described as the phone banking lead, joined in, including on the shoplifting talk.
Crone described $20 sunglasses from Walmart and left little doubt about how they left the store.
He tied the bit to his identity, then to the price, then to not paying.
"This is how you know I’m gay, though, my diva sunglasses."
Crone kept going.
"I love them. Walmart. They were like 20 bucks." "20 bucks, but I might not have paid for them, " "Huh? Who said that? I was like, “Oh, wee! They’re in my pocket! Crazy!”" "I’m like, I don’t make that much. Like, I’m not paying $20 for sunglasses."
Ellis reacted with surprise and laughter as the talk rolled on. The two organizers treated the theft talk as shared comedy, not a problem.
Ellis pushed the frame further. Walmart was not just a store. It was a target.
"Especially not at Walmart. You gotta stick it to the man."
She described an older method with tiny Sutter Home Wine bottles, pulling them from a cardboard carrier and sliding them into a sweatshirt sleeve. She also talked about a price line for theft before arrest, without giving a number.
"I’m telling you, if I, like if they’ve reached that, like whatever that like price limit of how much you can steal before they arrest you, " "They, they would have had us. But Sutter Home Wine, they would have those tiny little wine bottles, and you could just pull them out of the cardboard carrier, and we would do that and, like, put them into this sweatshirt shirt sleeve."
Crone answered the felony talk in the same spirit: “Yeah, before it’s a felony.” He also cracked, “Oh my gosh! Good thing you work for the party now!”
Breitbart reported at least two organizers giggling and laughing about items they had shoplifted. No arrests, charges, or police reports appear in the available account. The record is the training-room conversation itself.
The same session turned to voter contact. Crone told volunteers not to fear using personal identity. He said it makes a “stronger message.”
He pointed to affordability language linked to Sherrod Brown, then showed how to pivot to other themes, including LGBTQ rights, without always naming a candidate script.
"Notice how she said “affordability.” And I know the talking points, I know Sherrod [Brown] loves talking about affordability. So it’s all about listening and like, pivoting. Some other good ones, um, LGBTQ rights. Um, you don’t have to necessarily name specific candidate talking points, but you can reference, “Hey, you know, Democrats are pro-gay, pro-LGBTQ.” Um, for me personally, I’m a gay man, so I can be like, “Oh, well, I’m gay and I love the Democrats!” Um, this is, you know, recognizing certain biases. So like, if they say women’s rights, Julia, you can capitalize on that."
Crone made the tactic explicit.
"Don’t be afraid to use your own identity in this. I think it makes a stronger message, especially with like, “I know I’m gay, I’ve been gay.”" "Right! They’re not going to close the door on you now! Um, even on phone calls, when they’re like, “I love gay issues,” I’m like, “Oh, you don’t say...”"
Ellis put the victim line in plain words for the room.
"I know, I’m a victim of the system." "And they’re like, “Oh, poor victim of society.”"
That pairing is the core of the tape: laugh about taking merchandise, then train people to sell themselves to voters as harmed by “the system” or “society.”
OhioWins is described as the Ohio Democrat Party’s primary field program assisting federal and state candidates. Its listed work covers door-to-door canvassing, voter contact, phone banking, volunteer recruitment, and voter protection and ballot access training.
Those are the jobs these organizers were preparing people to do. The undercover recording places the theft jokes and the victimhood coaching inside that training, not outside it on personal time.
No date for the session appears in the report. No city or venue beyond Ohio is named. No official reply from OhioWins or the Ohio Democrat Party is included in the account. The named figures on the tape are Crone and Ellis; the journalist who recorded the session is not named beyond the undercover role.
What is on the record is blunt. Organizers discussed stealing sunglasses and wine, joked about a line before a felony, framed theft at Walmart as sticking it to “the man,” and coached volunteers to lean on being gay or a woman so voters would hear a “victim” story and keep the door open.
Law-and-order voters do not need a seminar to read that mix. When the people teaching Democrat door-knocking treat shoplifting as a punch line and victimhood as a script, the party’s field operation is showing its values in real time, and they are not the values of people who pay for what they take.
