David Hogg, freshly minted into leadership at the Democratic National Committee, is warning that he plans to push primaries against some members of his own party.
Hogg co-founded and is president of Leaders We Deserve, a group dedicated to electing young progressives, which is launching a push to primary House Democrats they view as “out-of-touch” and “ineffective.”
The $20 million effort will reportedly attempt to oust House Democrats in deep blue districts and elect younger leaders who will fight Trump more aggressively. The group will also spend money on races for state legislatures, Hogg said.
Hogg, 25, was elected as vice chair of the DNC less than three months ago. The young progressive activist initially made a name for himself after he survived the deadly school shooting at Parkland High School back in 2018, often going on profane rants demanding gun control.
The move by a member of the party brass to oust current Democratic lawmakers is an unprecedented one and is sure to face pushback from other Democrats.
“This is going to anger a lot of people,” Hogg told The New York Times, adding that he predicts a “smear campaign against me.”
“People say they want change in the Democratic Party, but really they want change so long as it doesn’t potentially endanger their position of power,” he told the paper. “That’s not actually wanting change. That’s selfishness.”
Hogg also reportedly refused to sign a “neutrality policy,” asking party leaders not to engage in any activity that would “call into question their impartiality and evenhandedness,” either in “their D.N.C. capacity and in their personal capacity.”
The Democratic Party has struggled to find its footing and a cohesive message that resonates with the public after the thrashing candidates up and down the ballot took in the November election.
Some of the internal strife involves the younger generation of progressives bucking older party leadership, urging policies further to the left and a more aggressive approach against the Trump administration.
“What we are not saying here is, ‘Oh, you’re old, you need to go,’” Hogg said of older elected Democrats. “What we’re saying is we need to make room for a new generation to step up and help make sure that we have the people that are most acutely impacted by a lot of the issues that we are legislating on — that are actually going to live to see the consequences of this.”
Hogg did not name any specific Democrats his group is looking to unseat yet.
