Activist David Hogg is taking aim at his own party’s incumbents—pledging $20 million to back younger, more left-wing challengers in next year’s primaries—while he is still serving as a vice chair of the Democratic National Committee.
Leaders We Deserve, a group Hogg cofounded in 2023, announced Tuesday that it will fund challengers to replace “ineffective, asleep-at-the-wheel” Democrats in deep-blue House districts, Politico reported Tuesday.
Hogg’s decision likely makes some of his Democratic critics feel vindicated after they warned that his rhetoric and far-left appeals could further erode the party’s brand. Soon after Hogg’s election, Liam Kerr, the cofounder of a PAC backing centrist Democrats, called the new vice chair a “symptom” of the party’s problems, saying Hogg not only “panders” but also “shits on moderates who won.”
The 25-year-old activist acknowledged on Tuesday that many of his fellow Democrats will be “very, very upset about” his campaign but insisted he can make the move because the party is “in a crisis right now.”
Hogg’s effort signals growing frustration within the Democratic Party as it faces sinking approval ratings and a leadership vacuum in its fight against the Trump administration. Recent CNN and NBC News polls show the party’s favorability sinking to record lows of 29 percent and 27 percent, respectively. Nearly a third of Democratic voters could not name anyone who “best reflects the core values” of the party, while those who did were sharply divided, according to another CNN poll.
Other Democratic officials, including DNC chairman Ken Martin, sharply disagree with Hogg’s plan to primary incumbents, the activist told Politico. Hogg has at least one prominent supporter—controversial American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten, who has deep ties with Democratic officials and wields extensive “political power,” critics say.
Weingarten “is backing Mr. Hogg’s efforts to insert his group into primaries, though she said she did not know yet of any specific members being targeted,” the New York Times reported.
Hogg, who became a public figure after surviving the 2018 Parkland school shooting, has long faced criticism from Republicans for his hardline progressive views. In 2021, he called on the government to “abolish ICE” and “defund the police.” A year later, he wrote on X that “we have enough straight white men in power” and that “it’d be nice to see some people who actually look like our country and not privilege.”
The post DNC Vice Chair David Hogg Plots $20M Campaign To Take Down His Party's 'Asleep-at-the-Wheel' Incumbents appeared first on .