By George Caldwell, The Daily Signal | April 24, 2025
Just a few months into the job, Democratic National Committee Vice Chair David Hogg is already on the outs with party leaders, who are sharply critical of his efforts to unseat longtime incumbent Democrats.
Hogg, who was elected one of five vice chairs on Feb. 1, first came to prominence in 2018 for his gun control activism after a mass shooting at his high school in Parkland, Florida.
The 25-year-old has been calling for primary challenges against some older Democrat incumbents in order to give the party a new, younger image.
In footage aired by Fox News on Thursday, DNC Chair Ken Martin spoke out against Hogg’s push to primary incumbent Democrats.
“Let me be unequivocal: No DNC officer should ever attempt to influence the outcome of a primary election, whether on behalf of an incumbent or a challenger,” Martin said, adding:
If you want to challenge incumbents, you’re more than free to do that. Just not as an officer of the DNC. Because our job is to be neutral arbiters.
Shortly afterward, an opinion article by Martin was published on Time magazine’s website, in which he reiterated his disagreement with Hogg and argued that the Democratic Party has never fully recovered from accusations that it rigged the 2016 Democratic presidential primary process in favor of Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Hogg created major controversy within the party upon refraining from signing Martin’s statement calling for DNC heads to agree to a policy of neutrality in elections.
In mid-April, Hogg’s group, Leaders We Deserve, launched a multimillion-dollar effort to fund challenges against Democrat incumbents—a bold move for a top party leader.
Veteran Democrat strategist James Carville called Hogg a “contemptible little twerp” in response, and asked, “Why doesn’t somebody sue David Hogg? He’s an officer of the Democratic National Committee. He is the vice chairman of the Democratic National Committee, and he’s running against other Democrats.”
Hogg responded to those criticisms in a separate interview, saying, “Carville believes in a politics of being timid, of hiding. I believe in fighting … We can’t simply just hide, as Carville repeatedly promotes, not to mention the fact that, frankly, he has not won an election since before I was born. I think it’s time for some new voices in our party.”
George Caldwell is a journalism fellow at The Daily Signal.
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