David A. Pepper

David Andrew Pepper (born June 7, 1971) is an American politician and writer. Pepper is the former chairman of the Ohio Democratic Party, a former councilman for the city of Cincinnati, and former member of the Hamilton County, Ohio board of commissioners, and is the author of many publications regarding efforts to preserve democracy in the United States.

In January 2026, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Amy Acton chose him as her running mate for that year's election.

Early life Raised in Cincinnati, Ohio, Pepper is the son of former Procter & Gamble CEO John Pepper Jr. Pepper graduated from Cincinnati Country Day School, earned his B.A. at Yale University, and his J.D. from Yale Law School. He specialized in commercial litigation for the Blank Rome firm.

Career Political career In 2001, Pepper was elected to the Cincinnati city council and served as the chairman of council's Law and Public Safety Committee. Pepper was defeated in his run for mayor in 2005.

Pepper was elected to the Hamilton County Board of Commissioners in November 2006. He has taught voting rights at University of Cincinnati School of Law.

After the 2020 elections, Pepper announced that he would step down as Ohio Democratic Party Chairman at the end of the year.

Pepper was a senior fellow at the Kettering Foundation, an American non-partisan research foundation from 2024-2025.

Writing career Pepper is the author of the political thriller novel, The People's House. The book centers around a Russian scheme to help elect Republican candidates. Bill Clinton said of The Voter File: "Pepper comes through again with this clever tale of how cyber sabotage of elections, coupled with highly concentrated ownership of traditional media operations, can undermine American democracy". Around 2002, Pepper was kidnapped and robbed at gunpoint. He wrote a novel entitled The Fifth Vote in 2023 based upon that experience.

Writing in 2022 for Salon, Paul Rosenberg called Pepper's 2021 work Laboratories of Autocracy "arguably the most important [book]" among the "booming literature on the erosion of democracy in America" and stated that the book "brings the subject down to earth, connects democratic erosion to corruption and the decline in America's quality of life, and provides a wealth of ideas about how to fight back to protect democracy". Pepper emphasizes these potential solutions in a Substack publication he has named "Pepperspectives", such as "'2025': Anticipating What's Coming ...In Order to Stop the Worst of It" on November 8, 2024 and in interviews by political commentators concerned about protecting democracy, such as "Happy Hour 181 - Texas In The Second Trump Era" by Progress Texas in late 2024.

Works

Electoral history Date Position Status Opponent Result Vote share Opponent vote share 2014 Attorney General Challenger Mike DeWine Defeated 38.5% 61.5% 2010 Auditor Open-Seat Dave Yost Defeated 44.9% 50.2% 2006 County Commissioner Phil Heimlich Elected 53.0% 47.0% 2005 Mayor Open-Seat Mark Mallory Defeated 47.9% 52.0% 2001 City Council Elected