By Lee Williams
SAF Investigative Journalism Project
The Democratic National Committee has had their fill of young anti-gun activist and DNC vice-chair David Hogg, who joined the committee not too long ago.
On Wednesday, the DNC announced they were planning another election for Hogg’s position and that of another DNC member.
According to multiple media reports, Hogg will not run for his DNC vice-chairmanship again.
“I came into this role to play a positive role in creating the change our party needs. It is clear that there is a fundamental disagreement about the role of a Vice Chair—and it’s OK to have disagreements. What isn’t OK is allowing this to remain our focus when there is so much more we need to be focused on. Ultimately, I have decided to not run in this upcoming election so the party can focus on what really matters,” Hogg wrote in a widely circulated press release.
Hogg, who is 25, has fought hard with DNC chair Ken Martin, who is 51. Hogg’s latest battle involved his plan to dole out cash to candidates who challenge “asleep-at-the-wheel Democrats.”
Martin strongly disagreed with Hogg’s proposal and did not accept his offer. Martin said it was infinitely more important for DNC officials to remain neutral rather than to support individual candidates.
Finally, according to a story in Politico, Hogg made a last-minute offer to Martin in which he promised to adhere to an “internal firewall in which he would stay on as vice chair but be barred from accessing any internal DNC information about congressional and state legislative races as long as he was supporting challengers.”
Martin rejected Hogg’s final offer and arranged new elections.
Other concerns
Hogg’s PAC, Leaders We Deserve, contributed $12,600 to Democrats from 2023 to 2024, yet during the same period it spent more than $2 million on web ads and more than $1 million on “campaign events and activities,” according to OpenSecrets.org.
Hogg’s PAC also gave $24,000 to the Ban Assault Weapons Now PAC, the group’s largest donation to a PAC or committee from 2023-2024.
Hogg has only been a DNC member since Feb. 1, 2025, yet his four months in office were filled with controversy, none more so than a story in Politico, in which DNC officials accused Hogg of secretly recording and leaking an online DNC meeting.
According to the Politico story, Martin shared his frustrations with Hogg and with other DNC officials. Hogg, Martin said, made it harder for the Democratic Party to operate day-to-day, and “had ruined his ability to demonstrate leadership.”
“No one knows who the hell I am, right? I’m trying to get my sea legs underneath of me and actually develop any amount of credibility so I can go out there and raise the money and do the job I need to, to put ourselves in a position to win,” Martin said addressing Hogg, according to Politico. “And again, I don’t think you intended this, but you essentially destroyed any chance I have to show the leadership that I need to. So, it’s really frustrating.”
During the online meeting, Martin told Hogg that his constant fighting was getting in the way of the DNC’s mission and goals.
“It has plenty of warts, and we’re all trying to change those, for sure, but the longer we continue this fight, the harder it is for us to actually do what we all want to do, which is make a difference in this country again,” Politico reported. “I deeply respect you, David. I, too, was looking forward to working with you, but this has created a situation.”
Hogg is perhaps best known as a survivor of the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida, which occurred February 14, 2018. Hogg, just weeks after the shooting, loudly blamed the NRA.
None of the other students who survived the attack were able to use the horrific event as well as Hogg, even though the opinions he expressed to the growing media coverage were often wrong or nonsensical. For example, Hogg posted on X/Twitter than an individual has no right to own a firearm. He also claimed that the Second Amendment is “about a states right to have what is today the national guard. The modern interpretation of 2A is a ridiculous fraud pushed for decades by the gun lobby.”
Following the January 6th attack, Hogg tweeted, “They can put up all the fencing around the capitol [but] the real threats of [Congresswoman Marjory Taylor Greene] and [Congresswoman Lauren Bobert] will still be inside until @GOPLeader takes a stand.”
Bobert simply replied: “Give your keyboard a rest, child.”
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