DNC Official’s Primary Plans Draw Ire of Campaign Veterans
A top Democratic National Committee official’s plan to fund primary challenges to certain Democratic incumbents drew a wash of criticism this week from party strategists, who accused DNC Vice Chair David Hogg of upending Democrats’ efforts to reclaim some control in Washington.
Hogg, a 25-year-old who gained national prominence as an outspoken survivor of the 2018 shooting at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School, announced this week that a separate group that he co-founded in 2023 called Leaders We Deserve would spend $20 million in safe-blue districts to primary Democratic incumbents who are “unwilling or unable to meet the moment.”
“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,” Hogg’s group wrote in a statement. “That is a culture that we have to break.”
Hogg has clarified that his efforts won’t only focus on primaries, saying that Leaders We Deserve would also spend money to help elect young Democrats to seats currently held by Republicans.
Fierce Backlash
Still, the pledge to spend millions of dollars against some Democratic incumbents drew swift backlash from veteran operatives, who argued that Hogg is effectively trying to sabotage fellow Democrats.
“He’s being paid to run against other Democrats. I think it’s an outrage,” James Carville, the storied Democratic consultant, said on NewsNation on Wednesday. “I don’t know if I have standing, but I might give the DNC $10 to sue him. He’s a contemptible little twerp, if you ask me.”
John Anzalone, the chief pollster on former President Joe Biden’s 2020 campaign, said that the money would be better spent on efforts to flip Republican-controlled state legislatures in 2026.
“I mean, I’d rather have the DNC Vice Chair spending $20 million trying to swing state legislative chambers to Democratic majority control, or help downballot races or about a thousand other things, but maybe I am just old school or care too much about the Democratic Party,” Anzalone wrote on X.
Steve Schale, a veteran Democratic operative in Florida who helped win the state for former President Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012, echoed that sentiment, arguing that a more worthy investment would be to help “elect down ballot Dems in states we need to improve in to deal with the post 2030 census.”
A Debate Over Democrats’ Future
Leaders We Deserve’s initiative – and the resulting backlash – mark the latest chapter in an ongoing back-and-forth among Democrats over the party’s future direction, messaging and strategy in the wake of former Vice President Kamala Harris’ defeat in 2024.
Some members of the party have demanded broad changes to how Democrats approach elections – including the kind of candidates they recruit and retain – arguing that the party’s time-tested strategies and messages were no longer effective against a more-populist GOP.
One Democratic paid-media consultant, who’s supportive of Hogg’s efforts, brushed aside the criticism from the likes of Carville, saying it was simply “the old guard trying to protect their own influence.”
“They don’t want to pass the torch to a new generation,” the consultant told C&E.
Hogg did not respond to C&E’s request for comment on the criticism. But in an interview with CBS News, the DNC vice chair pushed back, saying that Democrats should “embrace” certain primary challenges. He also appeared to dismiss the remarks from veteran party operatives, implying that they are partially to blame for Democrats’ losses in 2024.
“Look at the last results of the previous election,” Hogg told CBS News’ Major Garrett. “Those are the purported efforts that brought us here, just to say. It’s not personal. I don’t take those attacks personally in this regard. This is a strategic disagreement.”