- David Hogg refused to sign the DNC's neutrality agreement while announcing a $20 million campaign to replace older Democratic incumbents with younger candidates.
- Democratic strategist James Carville called Hogg's plan 'the most insane thing' while former RNC chair Reince Priebus said he would remove someone like Hogg from leadership.
- Hogg argues that 'seniority politics is killing the future of our party' and believes Democrats need new leaders to effectively challenge Republicans.
Internal disagreements in the Democratic Party played out on the public stage last week, with newly appointed Democratic National Committee vice chair, 25-year-old David Hogg, announcing plans to spend $20 million in a bid to replace older incumbents with younger candidates in Democratic primaries.
Hogg has already begun raising the funds through his political organization, Leaders We Deserve.
“Today’s party politics has an unwritten rule,” Hogg’s site says. “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.”
Hogg was a senior at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School when Nikolas Cruz, a former student, opened fire, killing 17 people. Since then, he has become a gun control activist and founded several non-profits, which aim to give more political power to young people.
Former RNC chairman says he’d have Hogg ‘removed from the party’ if he were his vice chairman
On Sunday’s episode of ABC’s “This Week” roundtable, host Jon Karl asked Reince Priebus, who served as Republican National Committee chairman from 2011 to 2017, how he would “handle a vice chair who was going to primary” incumbent candidates. Hogg was also on the ABC panel.
“Unfortunately, David, I’d have you removed from the party,” Priebus said.
Priebus explained Hogg’s position. “He said they’ve (Democrats) got no message. They’ve got no movement. They’ve got no leader. I mean, it doesn’t get any worse than that.”
“You’re defending Harvard. You’re traveling to El Salvador for MS-13 gang members. But here’s the point: you’re taking $20 million, if I’m looking at someone, my vice chair, the RNC taking $20 million for another effort, it’s $20 million out of the DNC’s pocket. You can’t be on the board of the fishing and forest company and on Greenpeace at the same time,” Priebus said.
Veteran Democratic strategist takes issue with Hogg’s plan, and Hogg responds
James Carville, who led Bill Clinton’s 1992 presidential campaign, appeared on CNN on Wednesday, criticizing Hogg’s plan.
“The most insane thing I ever heard is the vice chair of the Democratic National Committee spending $20 million running against other Democrats,” Carville said.
Carville questioned whether the “problem that we’re facing in the United States today is because we’ve got 65-year-old Democrats in office.” He then asked, “Why don’t you take on a Republican? That’s your job.”
Responding to Carville several days later, Hogg said to an interviewer in an X post, “I would also say James Carville has not won an election since before I was born.”
He continued, “I think it’s time to have new leaders in our party to meet this moment, because a lot of the people who are the most critical of this plan are the same ones who had $2 billion to win an election and still lost. So I say the experts can save it, because it’s time for some new ideas.”
In her 15-week campaign, Kamala Harris spent $1.5 billion, according to The New York Times.
Rep. Hillary Scholten, D-Mich., has also been critical of Hogg’s party shakeup plan. She told Axios, “I can think of a million better things to do with twenty million dollars right now.”
Hogg calls for meritocracy while discussing seniority politics?
On Thursday, Hogg appeared on CBS, saying seniority politics is “killing the future of our party.”
“The litmus test of whether or not you remain in a position is no longer are you the best person to be in that position. The litmus test is, ‘Well, how long have you ben there?’ That is not acceptable. It needs to be, are you the best person to meet this moment?” Hogg said.
The New York Times reported on Tuesday that the DNC asked party leaders to sign a neutrality agreement, saying they would not favor certain Democratic candidates over others.
All party leaders signed the agreement, except Hogg.
“I think it’s going to be a ... lot harder for us to beat Republicans with a 27 percent approval rating,” Hogg said, justifying his move to primary older incumbents. “We cannot simply go out there and say, ‘look, guys, we’re not Donald Trump. Vote for us.’ We need to show people the way that Democrats fight for democracy is by using democracy to revive the American dream,” he said, per Real Clear Politics.