Is David Hogg Already on His Way Out at the DNC?

Of all the students from now-demolished Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, FL, who decided to use a horrific 2018 mass shooting at their school to grab 15 minutes of fame, David Hogg was the loudest and perhaps the most extreme of them all. His 15 minutes stretched into years, until he recently became a vice chair of the Democratic National Committee (DNC). But he has wasted no time ruffling feathers, perhaps too many, because his days at the Democratic Party’s governing body may be numbered.

The Democratic Party has, since the 2024 election, done little to get itself back on track. Neither Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) nor Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) who lead the party in the House and the Senate, respectively, have demonstrated effective leadership. Into the vacuum that materialized stepped the party’s more extreme progressive wing. Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) have seized the moment, becoming two of the opposition party’s loudest voices on Capitol Hill.

Over at the DNC, meanwhile, vocal gun-grabber David Hogg somehow got himself handed a vice chair position and almost immediately threatened to work toward primarying some of the longer-serving establishment party figures.

The David Hogg Playbook Is Not Popular

On Sunday (May 4), Hogg appeared on MSNBC and continued his feud with the party’s old guard. He has recognized two things that should be blindingly obvious to every Democratic Party official. “We can’t just be the party that is against Donald Trump” – as Hogg said during another recent appearance on the network – and Democrats cannot continue to shed voters and expect to magically regain power.

However, it appears that if anyone has studied the Kamala Harris guide to speaking at length without saying anything that makes sense, it’s David Hogg. “So clearly something is not going right here,” Hogg mused. “And sometimes it’s not just a messaging problem that you have, it’s a broader messenger problem that you have in the first place.” The former VP would have been proud. Hogg went on, “What we’re trying to do is bring in some new messengers that are not only more equipped to fight in this moment against Donald Trump and build the Democratic Party into being a true opposition party.”

David Hogg believes the party needs new blood “to fight and meet this moment and to build the future of the Democratic party.” He’s not only taking digs at Democrats who are seniors in age as well as position. “And let me be clear, I’m not just saying, well, if you’re above a certain age, you shouldn’t be there. Unfortunately, sucking is something that is not limited to being above a certain age, right?”

Still, Hogg’s Leaders We Deserve PAC has pledged up to $20 million to primary older incumbents, prompting Rep. Hillary Scholten (D-MI) to remark, “What a disappointment from leadership. I can think of a million better things to do with twenty million dollars right now.” Soon after, the same PAC donated $100,000 to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. Many saw that as an apology, of sorts, or an appeasement.

A Democrat False Prophet?

Tensions are running high, and Hogg appears to have poured gasoline onto the fire. Veteran Democratic Party operative James Carville described Hogg’s ideas for the party as “jacka–sery.”

There’s another wrinkle that may jeopardize Hogg’s vice chairship. Democrat activist Kalyn Free, a Native American, is challenging Hogg and accusing the DNC of violating its own charter during the recent elections that saw David Hogg ascend to his position. Free contends that she and two other non-white female candidates for vice chair positions were discriminated against. On May 12, the DNC Credentials Committee will consider Free’s challenge.

David Hogg says he will continue fighting for the Democratic Party even if he loses his position at the DNC. A lot of people might say that’s more a gift to Republicans than to Democrats. The party doesn’t need fresh blood or new ideas so much as it needs a different direction. During the Biden years, the Democrats moved even more to the left, embracing policy positions that are clearly not popular with most American voters. Mr. Hogg doesn’t appear to have ever met a radical progressive idea he doesn’t like. If it was indeed the party’s flirtation with left-wing extremism that led to its crushing defeat last November, then maybe Hogg is a part of the problem, not the solution.