David Hogg said Wednesday he will not fight to hold onto his leadership role in the Democratic National Committee after igniting a firestorm over his push to target long-serving Democrats in safe congressional seats.
Hogg announced his retreat hours after the DNC removed him and another officer, Pennsylvania state lawmaker Malcolm Kenyatta, from their vice chair roles, saying the February elections they won did not follow the party’s rules. Hogg said he will not run in the redo elections to be held over the weekend.
With dejected Democrats looking for a path back to relevance after a disastrous 2024 election, Hogg said earlier this year that he plans to raise millions of dollars through a political action committee unaffiliated with the DNC called Leaders We Deserve to support young progressives against party stalwarts.
He says the party needs a shake-up to bring in leaders who will more aggressively confront Trump and connect with younger voters and offer an inspiring new vision for a party voters are rejecting. The push rankled many Democrats, who said DNC officers should be focused on defeating Republicans, not sowing division among Democrats.
Hogg on Wednesday decried “a serious lack of vision from Democratic leaders, too many of them asleep at the wheel,” noting three Democratic House members have died this year after being reelected in November, leaving the party shorthanded in Washington.
The culture on Capitol Hill rewards seniority and protects complacency, he said in a statement announcing his decision to walk away from his DNC role.
“If there is anything activism or history teaches us it’s that comfortable people, especially comfortable people with power, do not change,” Hogg said. “In this moment of crisis, comfort is not an option.”
In April, DNC Chair Ken Martin proposed bylaw changes to require party officers to remain neutral in all Democratic primaries. Party neutrality is crucial to maintaining the confidence of voters, he argued, pointing to the bitter feud that emerged after supporters of Sen. Bernie Sanders’ 2016 campaign believed he was stymied by party insiders putting their thumb on the scale in favor of Hillary Rodham Clinton, who won the nomination but went on to lose the general election to Donald Trump.
Hogg rose to prominence as a gun-control advocate after surviving the 2018 school shooting in Parkland, Florida.
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