David Hogg defies DNC by pushing incumbents to primaries, says DNC needs to 'fundamentally change'

Democratic National Committee Vice Chair David Hogg is causing a firestorm within his party as he defies leadership demands to separate himself from an outside group committed to funding primary challenges to incumbent members of Congress. Both his election as vice chair and his moves to unseat incumbents come as the Democrats wrestle with their direction post-election and with sharp differences between their moderate and progressive wings.

Hogg, 25, came to national prominence by assuming the mantle of spokesperson for the students killed in the Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School shooting on Valentine's Day 2018. Hogg was enrolled as a high school student at the time. Hogg graduated from Harvard University in 2023, and tried his hand at business, but failed after starting a "progressive" pillow company called "Good Pillow" to compete with Trump supporter Mike Lindell's "My Pillow."   

Hogg, who has manicured a progressive darling image, recently stirred up a firestorm with his vocal criticisms of Democratic leadership and calls for the party to embrace more progressive candidates. The party isn’t taking it lying down.

Leaders We Deserve PAC

Hogg’s "Leaders We Deserve" political action committee has pledged $20 million to fund such challenges as the gun-control activist hopes to remake the party into a more progressive image, a vision that has put him in conflict with the party establishment ahead of the critical 2026 midterms. According to Open Secret's disclosure of Federal Election Commission records, the PAC has spent millions of dollars in league with familiar left-wing names, such as Act Blue and the Elias Law Group.

DNC Chair Ken Martin has called for the organization to remain neutral and has floated a proposal to require neutrality from party leaders, which will face party approval in August. Until then, however, Hogg appears to have free rein, and he has made no secret of his belief that current Democratic leaders aren’t up to his standards.

"I've said to him, if you want to challenge incumbents, you're more than free to do that, but just not as an officer of the DNC, because our job is to be neutral arbiters. We can't be both the referee and also the player at the same time,” Martin said, according to Fox News. “It's important for us to maintain the trust that we have built with Democratic voters and to keep our thumb off the scale as party officers.”

Despite the discussion and the prospect of an August reform, Hogg has remained highly vocal about his dissatisfaction with the party’s current leadership.

“People do not trust the Democrats, they do not think we understand their problems, they feel like we are far too judgmental, out of touch, and haven’t offered a vision for the future that people want for themselves and their families,” he posted this week. “The current Democratic Party as it stands today has to fundamentally change. We cannot begin to address the problem if we don’t start by acknowledging it.”

Facing challenges from other progressives

Potentially complicating things for Hogg is a challenge to the vice-chair elections from Kaelyn Free, a Democratic activist who alleged that the election process discriminates against women of color. The party’s credentials committee is set to meet on May 12 to address the matter. The DNC describes her as an American attorney and a former district attorney in Oklahoma, and represents Oklahoma as the National Committeeperson on the Democratic National Committee. 

"This is about fairness and making sure that three women and the members of the DNC are not disenfranchised. I’ve spent my whole life fighting for fairness in, and through, the Democratic Party and we should expect nothing less this time,” Free told Fox News. 

“The DNC needs to correct this flawed election and then we all need to get back to the work of electing Democrats both incumbents and picking up new seats because the real priority is stopping Donald Trump and his dangerous agenda for our country.”

The DNC, for its part, insisted that “the DNC Officer election was conducted fairly, transparently, and in alignment with the rules that were approved by the DNC Membership in advance of the election” but that it would hear the challenge.

Hogg’s actions are propelled by a self-proclaimed frustration with incumbent Democrats, many of whom appeal to more moderate voters than do extreme progressives. Polling data seems to support Hogg’s assertions. Moreover, a March CNN poll showed the Democratic Party with a mere 29% overall approval rating, compared to 54% with an unfavorable opinion. Among Democrats, 52% said the party leadership was moving in the wrong direction, compared to 48% who supported its current direction. Conducted March 6-9, the survey questioned 1,206 U.S. adults and has a margin of error of +/- 3.3%. The Democrat and Democratic-leaning sample has a margin of error of +/- 5.0%.

Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents, moreover, expressed a clear desire that the party take a combative approach with Trump. A majority of 57% said the party should focus primarily on working to stop the Republican agenda and 42% said they should work with the Republicans.

Hogg isn’t the only progressive making noise

The apparent Democratic discontent with its current leadership may also be evident in the ongoing and well-publicized tours of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., both of whom have long been considered progressive outsiders within the Democratic Party.

In late March, the pair embarked on a multi-state “anti-oligarchy” tour and presented a similar message to Hogg’s in asserting the need for the party to resist the Republicans more aggressively. “This isn’t just about Republicans," Ocasio-Cortez said at a Las Vegas rally. "We need a Democratic Party that fights harder for us, too." 

Sanders, for his part, echoed that message and channeled an anti-elite theme when reaching out to less educated and disaffected voters. Sanders told reporters during the tour that the party should reach out to "working-class people, young people, people who get their hands dirty, people who may not have graduated college, people who do not have PhDs in economics, people who are struggling to put food on the table.”

Hogg did not respond to Just the News' request for comment.