David Hogg, a survivor of the 2018 shooting at his high school in Parkland, Florida, who turned into a national anti-violence activist, has launched a bid to serve in leadership of the Democratic National Committee.
Hogg, 24, announced on Monday he is running to become a vice chair of the DNC, arguing he would focus on winning back young voters who have drifted from the Democratic Party to Republicans. That shift came profoundly, and abruptly, in November, when young voters who predominantly favored President Joe Biden just four years earlier backed Donald Trump in larger numbers than any Republican presidential candidate since 2008, according to NBC News exit polling.
“Moving forward, we must have a renewed focus on our youth outreach in all states and territories to rebuild our coalition after the massive shift to the right among young voters this election,” Hogg said in a statement.
Beyond reaching out to young voters, Hogg is urging the party to take a deeper look within itself to assess the setbacks that befell Democrats on Nov. 5. He was critical of some of Kamala Harris’ team, among others, saying they took on an almost blasé attitude after the vice president lost, despite warning repeatedly of dangers that Trump would bring to democracy if reelected.
“You raised an absurd amount of money. This was our race to lose, and we lost it. And it’s time to really peel back the curtain and say, ‘Okay, what did we do wrong?’ Instead of just protecting the consultants that brought us into this place in the first place,” Hogg said in an interview.
Hogg said he is aggressively tackling the race to become DNC vice chair, having already emailed every one of the 448 active members of the DNC who would cast a ballot in the election and rapidly booking follow-up conversations.
Hogg expressed outrage over what he described was a lack of awareness by the party in the months before the election. Hogg said that at a brunch during the August Democratic National Convention in Chicago, he asked why the party wasn’t doing more to reach out to young men.
“I got messages from different consultants saying, ‘Here you go, saying this stupid stuff again.’ As if they know what young people are thinking, when it’s emblematic of the broader problem at hand for the Democratic Party, where we would rather choose to live in a consultant-curated fictional reality,” Hogg said.
Hogg gained national notoriety after the mass shooting Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, where 17 people died. He and classmates stepped forward, hosting marches demanding strengthened gun laws.
In the wake of the shooting, Hogg and classmates founded the gun safety group March For Our Lives, which now boasts of having helped pass more than 250 gun safety laws.
Hogg went on to found Leaders We Deserve, a group that focuses on electing young people to local and national public office.
Hogg said he fears Trump’s term could threaten some of the gun safety initiatives and that Democrats aren’t taking those kinds of threats more seriously — particularly after warning about them in the run-up to the election.
“The thing that kills me is people going out after the election in the party and just the general vibe being ‘well, there’s nothing we could have done differently. Let’s put our hands up and let’s go get our consulting jobs in corporate America. I’ll see you guys there,'” Hogg said.
Hogg’s announcement is the latest in recent activity around new DNC leadership, since current DNC Chair Jaime Harrison announced he was stepping down. The party itself is reeling after losing the White House to Trump despite outspending him and boasting of superior organizational strength in the weeks leading up to the election.
Candidates for DNC chair are to hold forums in January before the committtee’s membership votes on Feb. 1. So far, announced DNC chair candidates include Minnesota party chair and DNC vice chair Ken Martin, Wisconsin party Chair Ben Wikler, former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley and New York state Sen. James Skoufis.
