DNC Chair Rebukes Vice Chair David Hogg’s Push to Unseat Incumbent Democrats

Democratic National Committee (DNC) Chairman Ken Martin on Thursday rebuked DNC Vice Chair David Hogg’s plan to fund primary challenges against some incumbents within his own party.

Hogg, a 25-year-old survivor of the Parkland High School shooting and one of the best-known DNC officials, and Leaders We Deserve, a progressive political organization founded by Hogg and others in 2023, announced the intention to primary Democrats on their website on April 15.

After Hogg came out as a leading proponent of the push, Martin was critical, saying that the DNC needed to be a “referee” with its officials remaining neutral on primary contests.

“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 during an appearance on Fox News.

“If you want to challenge incumbents, you’re more than free to do that, but just not as an officer of the DNC, because our job is to be neutral arbiters. We can’t be both the referee and also the player at the same time.”

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“This moment requires us to have the strongest opposition party possible to stop [President Donald] Trump  … and to provide a real alternative to the Republican Party for voters that we simply do not have right now,” Hogg said.

“As we’re seeing law firms, tech companies, and so many others bowing to Trump, we all must use whatever position of power we have to fight back. And that’s exactly what I’m doing.”

Hogg also said he isn’t breaking any rules by targeting certain Democratic incumbents for replacement.

“The role of the DNC is to set the Presidential primary calendar, set the Presidential debate schedule, to help strengthen our state parties, play a key role in building our data infrastructure for the party, and to be the campaign in waiting for whoever the next Democratic nominee is,” Hogg wrote. “Nothing I’m doing is at odds with any of that.”

Leaders We Deserve announced the push earlier this month, indicating that they were seeking a change in the status quo.

The group said Washington has an incumbent-favoring culture.

“Today’s party politics has an unwritten rule: if you win a seat, it’s yours for life. No one serious in your party will challenge you. That is a culture that we have to break.”

The organization is seeking to replace long-serving incumbents with new, younger Democrats—and have committed $20 million to that end.

“Younger leaders simply bring a different level of urgency that we just aren’t seeing in our politics right now,” the statement said, referencing young Democrats’ perception of urgency on issues like climate or gun control.

“Our politicians have failed to make [democracy] work for the people, and instead made it work for the special interests destroying our future.”

Democrats Search for Identity Post-Trump

The escalating feud fits into a larger identity crisis for the Democratic Party in the wake of Trump’s sweeping 2024 electoral victory, when he took all seven swing states as well as the popular vote.

Since then, Democrats have been scrambling to articulate their platform and stances amid Trump’s much more aggressive second term.

Meanwhile, young progressive Democrats—including figures like Hogg and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.)—have increasingly sought to assert a presence over the party.

At the end of the 117th Congress, mounting pressure from younger Democrats led three longtime House leaders—Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), and Majority Whip Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.), all of whom were octogenarians—to step down, making way for the ascent of House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) and other younger Democrats.