Democratic National Committee Vice Chair David Hogg has vowed to spend millions to unseat his own party’s incumbents during primary season.
Hogg plans to allocate $20 million from his organization, Leaders We Deserve, to try to replace Democrat lawmakers in safe districts with younger and more progressive candidates.
In an interview with Politico, Hogg stated, “We have a culture of seniority politics that has created a litmus test of who deserves to be here. We need people, regardless of their age, that are here to fight.”
Democrats are not happy with the move from the political activist.
DNC Chair Ken Martin told the outlet that the party’s longstanding position is that primary voters, not the national party, determine candidates for the general election.
Still, Martin added, “David Hogg is a passionate advocate and we are grateful for his service to the Democratic Party, whether it be in his role as a D.N.C. vice chair or in an outside capacity.”
Hogg said he expects the move to “anger a lot of people” and predicts a “smear campaign” against him.
The New York Times reports:
In an interview, Mr. Hogg said he understood that he would face blowback for his decision to serve simultaneously as a top official in the party — which is typically focused on electing Democrats over Republicans — and as a leader of an effort to oust current Democratic lawmakers.
“This is going to anger a lot of people,” Mr. Hogg said of his efforts, which he began to brief allies, some lawmakers and party officials on in recent days. He predicted “a smear campaign against me” that would aim to “destroy my reputation and try to force me to stop doing this.”
“People say they want change in the Democratic Party, but really they want change so long as it doesn’t potentially endanger their position of power,” he said. “That’s not actually wanting change. That’s selfishness.”
His decision to engage directly in primaries threatens to fracture the leadership of the Democratic National Committee.
At a private meeting last month, a “neutrality policy” was circulated asking the party’s top officers to refrain from any activity that would “call into question their impartiality and evenhandedness,” according to two people with knowledge of the pledge, which sought to cover officers “both in their D.N.C. capacity and in their personal capacity.”
Everyone signed it — except Mr. Hogg.
