Democratic National Committee Vice Chair David Hogg (Photo by Peter Rosenstein)
DNC officers should not be involved in primaries
With his recent announcement his PAC will challenge incumbent Democrats with primaries, David Hogg came off as a self-indulgent, self-aggrandizing, young man. That is sad. This is difficult for me to write as I admire him, and what he has done with his life. However, his recent actions have me, and others, looking at him through a different lens.
I am a strong supporter of gun control. I proudly participated in the massive rally for gun control in D.C. after the horrendous shootings at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, a rally David helped organize and spoke at so eloquently. I had the opportunity to chat with him recently when he spoke at the Women’s Democratic Club in D.C. I wrote how impressive he was that evening. Not only do I share his views on gun control, but agree with him we need more young people actively involved in the political system, and holding office; from school boards, to congress. I wrote a Washington Blade column in 2018 calling for term limits, and mandatory retirement at 80 for both the Supreme Court and Congress.
So I was as surprised as others when I heard David announce he is going to use his PAC, ‘Leaders We Deserve,’ which he began in 2023, to run primaries against incumbent Democrats in 2026 who he thinks aren’t doing what he wants. What was shocking about this was he was doing it as an officer, a vice president, of the Democratic National Committee. This was the office he just won. There are two reasons this is so wrong. First is the DNC should not be involved in primaries. Second is the officers of the DNC should be raising money for the DNC, not for themselves, and their own interests.
I can only assume David had this all planned before he ran for that office, which makes this so self-indulgent, and arrogant. The question needs to be asked: Exactly what will this PAC do and what are the criteria for the candidates it will support and those they decide to challenge? David says he wants young people to run, but then says he decided his PAC wouldn’t support anyone challenging Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.), both over 80. So, that leads me to ask who will make the decisions as to which incumbents to challenge and which young candidates to support? What are the criteria? I think he needs to be very transparent about his PAC if he wants people to take him, and his goals, seriously.
I read his PAC’s website, and it leaves much to be desired. It appears there are two people making decisions, David and his co-founder, Kevin Lata, campaign manager for Maxwell Frost, the first Gen Z member of Congress. The mission states, “Leaders We Deserve is a grassroots organization dedicated to electing young progressives to Congress and State Legislatures across the country to help defeat the far-right agenda and advance a progressive vision for the future. Our mission is to identify and elect more trailblazers – youthful, audacious, and charismatic leaders who aren’t afraid to challenge the status quo.”
The website goes on to say the PAC wants to be the EMILYS List for young people. “To provide day-to-day support to help campaigns build from the ground up, and work with them directly on fundraising, messaging, coalition building, voter contact, and volunteer recruitment. To run paid media campaigns, and run a well-funded independent expenditure program.”
All of this is great, but again, David needs to be more transparent about all of this, particularly since he is clearly using his post as vice chair of the DNC to promote his PAC. I guess he counts on the old saying “any publicity is good publicity” will come into play. But based on his using his election as a DNC vice chair as the platform to announce this, it is fair to ask what he and his co-founder are being paid by the PAC? How much do they stand to make? How much raised will go to consultants? What percentage of funds raised in 2024 went to the 12 listed as their candidates last year? One, Sarah McBride (D-Del.), won her race for Congress, the 11 others ran for statehouses around the country. Some won, some lost.
David tried to get ahead of the reaction to what he is doing in an interview with the New York Times, saying, “This is going to anger a lot of people, and predicted a ‘smear campaign’ against him.”
He might think I am participating in a smear campaign. But David, it’s not a smear campaign. You are just getting a strong, appropriate response to how poorly you handled this.
