David Hogg, the 25-year-old progressive dweeb radical liar who lied about his role in the Parkland shooting few years back, will not compete in the new Democratic National Committee (DNC) vice chair elections that were decided today after a majority of members voted for a new election.
“I came into this role to play a positive role in creating the change our party needs,” Hogg told the New York Times on Wednesday. “It is clear that there is a fundamental disagreement about the role of a Vice Chair and it’s OK to have disagreements.”
“What isn’t OK is allowing this to remain our focus when there is so much more we need to be focused on,” the 25-year-old Democratic activist continued. “Ultimately, I have decided to not run in this upcoming election so the party can focus on what really matters.” Hogg’s decision to quit the DNC comes on the same day members voted to remove him and Pennsylvania state Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta from their national party posts, citing procedural issues related to their February elections.
Hogg would’ve been able to vie for the post again, but opted not to amid intense criticism from some Democrats over his plans to spend $20 million to take down long-serving Dem House lawmakers in primaries. “I don’t think you intended this, but you essentially destroyed any chance I have to show the leadership that I need to,” DNC Chairman Ken Martin recently vented in a call with Hogg and other Dems that was leaked to Politico this week. “So it’s really frustrating.”
“No one knows who the hell I am, right?” Martin, sounding on the verge of tears, went on. Hogg defended his effort to fund primary challenges against incumbent Democrats after announcing his exit from the DNC in a lengthy X thread. “After seeing a serious lack of vision from Democratic leaders, too many of them asleep at the wheel, and Democrats dying in office that have helped to hand Republicans an expanded majority, it became clear that Leaders We Deserve had to start primarying incumbents and directly challenging the culture of seniority politics that brought our party to this place to help get our party into fighting shape again,” Hogg wrote.
“I need to do this work with Leaders We Deserve, and it is going to remain my number one mission to build the strongest party possible,” he added. Hogg went to thank “everyone who has supported me” during his short-lived tenure at the DNC. “I have nothing but admiration and respect for my fellow officers,” he wrote. “Even though we have disagreements, we all are here to build the strongest party possible.”
David argued that the Democratic Party mustn’t be “defined by not being the less bad of two options in voters’ eyes.” “That change can only come through a full embrace of Democracy not only to defeat Republicans but to elect new Democrats to show voters how we are changing and regain their trust by listening to them, doing all we can to give them the best representation possible. Leaders We Deserve exists to do just that.” As the world laughs at his failed time in the DNC now please David go away and stop trying to become famous! You're a joke.
Democrats just picked an IDIOT as their NEW LEADER... You read it right the David Hogg who is a Crisis Actor and who lied about his involvement in the school shooting during Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School (2018) and now that his brain washing is complete as he went to Harvard University (2023) afterall. But he a liberal radical young dumbass has been named the DNC new leader! This is incredible both because it shows how incompetent the DNC is and how lost in translation they are as they are now under this guy? A guy who wants to abolish ICE, Defund the police, wants to take away our rights to bare arms and acts like a Chuck Schumer dictator clone when he gives speeches.
This dude is a moron and will continue to showcase to the country just how evil these liberals are and I for one laugh at this move by the left. This is a gift to the Republicans who can now secure the elections for decades to come after this current Trump white house.
America will NEVER give up these rights as they keep us safe David so you should resign and go where you belong at a job at a fast food joint in China! GET OUT! But it's becoming clear to not just us who know this kid as a liar, and moron who voted for Trump but some centrist Dems fear David Hogg could ‘do more harm than good.’
Inside the Democratic Party, Hogg’s election and the resulting coverage has been accompanied by frustration among centrists that a 24-year-old March for our Lives co-founder with a million followers could hurt the party’s brand, especially in swing districts.
They vented that his ascension is representative of Democrats’ failure to grapple with some voters’ frustration that the party is overly concerned with diversity and appeals to the far left. “The most worrying thing is if he carries into this new job a belief that saying what he was saying, but louder, is the way to prevail in red states,” said Matt Bennett, co-founder of the center-left group Third Way. “Because it isn’t … If he believes that it is, that’s going to be a real problem for our candidates in those places.” Bennett added, “He came up as an activist, but now he is a party leader, and that’s a very, very different role.”
Another Democratic strategist, granted anonymity to speak candidly, complained that Hogg can now “go on TV as a vice chair for the DNC, speak on behalf of the Democratic Party, in a way that can do more harm than good.”
Hogg, who first rose to prominence after becoming a survivor of the 2018 school shooting at Parkland High School in Florida, pitched himself to DNC members as a solution to Democrats’ growing youth problem, calling for the party to make concrete efforts to include young people in party business for example, by covering the costs of travel to meetings for people who make less than $100,000, a barrier for some hoping to participate.
He argued in DNC candidate forums that Democrats shouldn’t be “afraid to talk about the hard-to-talk-about issues.”
“Our party failed to connect with voters this year because they felt like we ignored them. We need to listen again and have the tough conversations with people from across the political spectrum and I’m committed to doing that work,” Hogg said in a statement to POLITICO. During his DNC campaign, Hogg didn’t pitch himself as a hardcore ideologue. Rather, he urged the party to “become better storytellers” about what Democrats do because the “American people do not think we care about them” and they “don’t think we deliver for them.”
“I found him to be focused and pragmatic because he understands that’s the best pathway for success,” said John Della Volpe, director of Harvard University’s youth poll, who has worked with Hogg. “Over the time I’ve known him, he’s grown into a leader who understands that the goal is to win.”
The message resonated in the DNC elections over the weekend. Hogg carried an impressive list of endorsements, including from Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten and Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.). Artie Blanco, a union organizer and longtime DNC member from Nevada, and Pennsylvania state Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta were also elected to national vice chair positions over the weekend.
“Pumped for David, who is IN THE ARENA and helping DEMS BE COOL AGAIN,” Jack Schlossberg, a Democratic influencer and the grandson of President John F. Kennedy, wrote on X. But that’s not how Hogg’s election played in the conservative press. “New DNC vice chair sets social media ablaze after ‘radical’ posts exposed: ‘Learned absolutely nothing,’” blared Fox News. Newsweek reported, “New DNC Vice Chair Called to Abolish ICE,” while the National Review offered, “It’s Time to Go Hogg-Wild at the Democratic National Committee!”
In his statement to POLITICO, Hogg said of his reception from conservative media, in part, “I’m used to it, but I’ve never let that right-wing propaganda stop me from showing up, uplifting young voices, and working to unify all corners of our party.” In some ways, the discussion surrounding Hogg infused into the DNC elections an ideological debate that had been all but absent in the race for chair, which Ken Martin of Minnesota won after a campaign largely focused on the nuts and bolts of running elections.
It was a departure from long standing divisions in the party between centrists and the left flank a welcome development for many party operatives scrambling after their November losses to put up a unified front against President Donald Trump.
But Hogg’s elevation was a reminder of how tense some of those intraparty rifts remain. Following the election, Liam Kerr, co-founder of a PAC supporting centrist Democrats, wrote on X that Hogg was a “symptom” of many Democratic problems, including being a “white guy who panders” and a Democrat who “shits on moderates who won.”
Of particular frustration was Hogg’s post on X after Rep. Mary Peltola (D-Alaska) lost re-election in November. “Good riddance,” Hogg posted on Nov. 16. “Turns out being weak on gun control doesn’t save you. Peltola was awful on gun control.”
“Whose side are you on?” said Lauren Harper Pope, who co-founded Welcome PAC with Kerr. “Ok, you can have your perspective on guns, but you’re trying to make the tent smaller.” Shasti Conrad, the chair of the Washington State Democrats who challenged Hogg for one of the vice chair roles, said of Hogg, “I believe that for the party to rebuild itself effectively, we needed leaders who not only brought passion and energy but also have a strong understanding of how the party apparatus works.” Hogg was evidently sufficiently familiar with the party apparatus to win.
And some Democrats even those critical of his past comments are leaving open the possibility that he might moderate them now that he holds a position in the party. “He can either be the caricature of who he is on TV and online, or he can go deeper,” said a DNC member, granted anonymity to discuss the issue candidly. “We don’t know yet what to expect from him.”
