DNC Moves to Oust David Hogg After He Says Party Isn’t Standing Up to Trump

A Democratic National Committee (DNC) panel voted on Monday to void the result of a vote electing David Hogg as vice chair of the party after the young Democrat criticized the party for being “asleep at the wheel” as the Trump administration moves the U.S. swiftly toward fascism.

As a result of a challenge from Kalyn Free, a losing candidate in the election, the committee decided that the election was not conducted properly and that it violated the DNC’s gender parity rules. If the full body of the DNC rules the same way, it will force Hogg and fellow Vice Chair Malcolm Kenyatta to run for election again later this year.

Hogg acknowledged the panel’s stated reason for the vote, but said in a statement that it is “impossible to ignore the broader context of my work to reform the party which loomed large over this vote.”

Indeed, Hogg’s PAC, Leaders We Deserve, recently announced an initiative to fund young primary challengers in Democratic races. DNC Chair Ken Martin has chastised Hogg for this push, claiming that the party emphasizes neutrality — even though this is blatantly untrue, and many Democrats have routinely campaigned against progressive candidates.

“Our country is in crisis, and too many leaders in the Democratic Party are asleep at the wheel. Trump is on a mission to crash our economy, disappear people without due process, and participate in flagrant public corruption — and voters still trust him more than Democrats,” Hogg said in his statement. “That is a massive indictment of our party.”

The young Democrat, who rose to prominence as an activist after surviving the 2018 mass shooting at Parkland High School, does not necessarily claim to be a major defector from the Democrats’ ideological stances. But he has nonetheless faced attacks from centrist members of the party who paint him as a radical — seemingly just for his belief that the party should modernize and be more responsive to voters’ needs and demands.

On Friday, for instance, Democratic analysts wrung their hands when Hogg said that elected Democrats should prioritize the concerns of their constituents over their own political aspirations.

Earlier this month, Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-South Carolina) said that giving up his seat in Congress would be equivalent to making him “give up my life.”

In a fiery response in an interview on “Real Time With Bill Maher,” Hogg said: “There’ve been a few members that have come out, that have said, ‘Well, you know, if I retire my life is effectively over.’ And what I would say is: ‘Get over yourself. This isn’t about you, this is about our country and it’s about your constituents.”

The constituents are “who you’re there to serve and if they choose to serve somebody else, so be it,” he went on, adding that providing voters with an option other than an incumbent is one of the primary goals of Leaders We Deserve.

Kenyatta said that he disagrees with the outcome of the vote, saying that his election to vice chair was “resounding” and expressing frustration that the media was fixated on Hogg.

The internal party scrap, critics say, has been a show of Democrats’ inability to accept even mild criticism — with the party taking umbrage with their own vice chair while refusing to meaningfully resist President Donald Trump, as he triggers numerous constitutional crises and is seeking to suspend Americans’ fundamental rights.