Hogg-Tied: DNC Orders Youth Activist To Stop Attacking Incumbents or Resign as Vice Chair

David Hogg has pledged $20 million to primary his own party’s ‘ineffective’ incumbents

The Democratic National Committee is planning to give activist David Hogg an ultimatum: Abandon his plan to fund primary challengers against Democratic incumbents or resign as DNC vice chair.

DNC chairman Ken Martin will unveil a proposal on Thursday requiring all committee officials to remain neutral in Democratic primaries, an individual familiar with the internal deliberation told Politico. The move is aimed at reining in Hogg, who sparked outrage last week after he pledged $20 million to support younger, more progressive challengers against “ineffective, asleep-at-the-wheel” incumbent Democrats in safe blue districts.

Martin confirmed the proposal in a call with reporters, according to Politico.

“As I’ve said to [Hogg], 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,” Martin said. “This is not about shielding incumbents or boosting challengers. It’s about voters’ trust in the party.”

The rule change, if approved at the DNC’s August meeting, would force Hogg either to step down from his leadership position or sever ties with Leaders We Deserve, a group the 25-year-old activist cofounded in 2023 that is spearheading the campaign to oust party incumbents.

A party official “can’t be both the referee and also the player at the same time,” Martin told reporters about Hogg. “You have to make a decision.”

Hogg has remained defiant, telling Semafor‘s David Weigel that even if the DNC adopts the neutrality rule, he has no intention of giving up his vice chair role or cutting ties with Leaders We Deserve. “If they decide to remove me, I don’t take it personally. This is a strategic disagreement here,” Hogg told Weigel.

The infighting signals growing frustration within the Democratic Party as it faces sinking approval ratings and a leadership vacuum in its fight against the Trump administration. Nearly a third of Democratic voters could not name anyone who “best reflects the core values,” while those who did were sharply divided, according to a recent CNN poll. The Democratic base is also “on the verge of a Tea Party-style, intra-party revolt” against their party’s congressional leaders, Politico reported last month.

Hogg, who became a public figure after surviving the 2018 Parkland school shooting, has long faced criticism from Republicans for his hardline progressive views. In 2021, he called on the government to “abolish ICE” and “defund the police.” A year later, he wrote on X that “we have enough straight white men in power.”