A Democratic National Committee panel has found that gun control activist David Hogg and a colleague were not properly elected to be among its five vice chairs earlier this year, paving the way for their removal.
Hogg, 25, rose to national prominence after surviving the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, on February 14, 2018, and co-founding March for Our Lives.
He has since become a vocal political commentator, critical of President Donald Trump and the Democratic Party’s failure to earn the trust of the electorate.
Hogg made waves last month by announcing that his new organization, Leaders We Deserve, co-founded with Kevin Lata – the former campaign manager of Florida Representative Maxwell Alejandro Frost, the first Gen-Z member of Congress – intends to support primary challengers to “out-of-touch, ineffective” House Democrats occupying safe congressional seats that, it believes, have not done enough to oppose the Trump administration.
In what has already been interpreted as an attack on that strategy, the DNC’s Credentials Committee on Monday upheld a complaint brought by Oklahoma activist Kalyn Free, who lost out on one of the vice chair positions in February 1’s elections and subsequently accused the DNC of breaking its own rules on gender diversity, potentially invalidating the elections of Hogg and Malcolm Kenyatta.
A full DNC vote will now be held on the committee’s findings, which could mean new elections being staged, with the same five candidates, including Hogg and Kenyatta, on the ballot once again.
“While this vote was based on how the DNC conducted its officers’ elections, which I had nothing to do with, it is also impossible to ignore the broader context of my work to reform the party which loomed large over this vote,” Hogg responded in a statement.
“I ran to be DNC Vice Chair to help make the Democratic Party better, not to defend an indefensible status quo that has caused voters in almost every demographic group to move away from us.
“The DNC has pledged to remove me, and this vote has provided an avenue to fast-track that effort.”
Kenyatta also reacted strongly, calling it “a slap in the face” and complaining that he had “worked [his] a** off to get this role and have done the job every day since I’ve held it.”
He also rejected media framing of the ruling as an internal effort to oust Hogg, saying the story was not only about his colleague, “even though he clearly wants it to be.”
For his part, DNC Chairman Ken Martin said: “I am disappointed to learn that before I became chair, there was a procedural error in the February vice chair elections.
“The Credentials Committee has issued their recommendation, and I trust that the DNC members will carefully review the committee’s resolution and resolve this matter fairly.
“I thank all of our officers for their service, including Vice Chairs Kenyatta and Hogg, and look forward to continuing to work with them in their officer posts as this matter is resolved.”
Before Monday’s ruling, Martin had posted on X: “I am more committed than ever to introduce the slate of structural reforms that enshrine these values into the official rules of the Democratic Party. These reforms will require all party officers – including myself – to remain neutral in primaries.
“They will ensure no party official can abuse their position to tilt the outcome of an election. Whether you’re a challenger or an incumbent, 18 or 80, the rules must apply equally.
“Do I have opinions? Of course. But when you lead the institution tasked with calling the balls and strikes, you don’t get to also swing the bat.”
His thread could likewise be construed as a rebuke of Hogg, whose plans to put the heat under Democrats he considers complacent have ruffled the feathers of party elders, most notably Bill Clinton’s former strategist James Carville, who labelled him “a contemptible little twerp” in a NewsNation interview before changing his tune.
