Democratic party leaders Thursday morning admonished officers not to take sides in primaries, addressing a situation involving activist David Hogg, a vice chair of the Democratic National Committee.
"Let me be unequivocal: No DNC officer should ever attempt to influence the outcome of a primary election, whether on behalf of an incumbent or a challenger," DNC Chair Ken Martin said on a media call. "Voters should decide who our primary nominees are, not DNC leadership. Our role is to serve as stewards of a fair, open and trusted process, not to tilt the scales."'
As of now, however, the DNC does not have the power to remove Hogg if he refuses to stand down on funding primary challenges through a separate PAC — unless the body changes its rules, a senior DNC official told NBC News.
“Under the present bylaws, there is no action that can be taken against David Hogg without changing the bylaws to extend that policy of neutrality to all primaries," DNC Finance Chair Chris Korge said. "There is no codified, legal way to remove an officer for doing what David Hogg has done because it only extends to the presidential race. "
Korge said that, as of now, the situation will be addressed at a future meeting, most likely in August.
Korge said he believed it was imperative for the body to formally change its bylaws because the party division the Hogg situation has caused harks back to an old ghost Democrats don't want to revisit.
“It smells like 2016, when progressives said the DNC had it in the bag for Hillary Clinton," Korge said, referring to angst in the party that the DNC had its thumb on the scale to block Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., from the presidential nomination. "No party official, no officer of the DNC, should do anything that would result in the division that was created by the perception that existed back in 2016."
Martin said Thursday that he had spoken to Hogg about what he perceived as a conflict, but he didn't expound on whether he gave him an ultimatum.
"I understand what he's trying to do," Martin said on the call. "As I've said to him: '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 a neutral arbiter. We can't be both the referee and also the player at the same time. You have to make a decision.'"
In pushing back Thursday, Hogg cited Trump's power clashes with institutions in saying the party needed to take more aggressive actions. He added that he hadn't violated any DNC bylaws.
"They’re trying to change the rules because I'm not currently breaking them. As we’re seeing law firms, tech companies, and so many others bowing to Trump, we all must use whatever position of power we have to fight back. And that’s exactly what I'm doing," Hogg said in a statement.
"The role of the DNC is to set the Presidential primary calendar, set the Presidential debate schedule, to help strengthen our state parties, play a key role in building our data infrastructure for the party, and to be the campaign in waiting for whoever the next Democratic nominee is. Nothing I'm doing is at odds with any of that," he added.
Hogg set off a firestorm among Democrats last week when he said his political action committee would fund a $20 million effort to challenge “ineffective” incumbents in primaries.
Hogg is a vice chair of the DNC, and his comments reverberated through party circles, prompting a throng of angered Democrats to complain — including to DNC officials — that he shouldn’t put his thumb on the scale as an officer of the committee.
Since last week, Hogg has appeared on just about every cable news show and digital outlet, advocating for a party reset of sorts — not just because it lost the White House to Donald Trump, but also because, he said, it lost faith among voters.
Now the party is grappling with what to do with him.
Martin and others on the call didn't discuss what next steps they'd take with Hogg. And Hogg maintained in an interview Thursday that he wasn't in violation of current bylaws.
At 25, Hogg has emerged as a potential disruptor to a party still trying to find its way forward after a bitter loss in November. Since former Vice President Kamala Harris' defeat, the party has struggled to find its footing against a Republican trifecta in Washington and is still searching for a leader and a message.
Jane Kleeb, a DNC vice chair and the president of the Association of State Democratic Committees, said she backed neutrality, and it was also something that Martin also ran on.
Kleeb noted that enshriningDNC neutrality was something that Sanders "and many other Dems across the ideological spectrum have repeatedly asked us to codify into our bylaws."
Hogg, a survivor of the 2018 mass shooting at his high school in Parkland, Florida, and now a national anti-violence activist, is advocating to oust what he calls ineffective candidates from solid-blue districts. He wants to usher in fresh blood and generally younger candidates as part of a new effort from his PAC, Leaders We Deserve.
“There are old people who are great, there are young people who suck and vice versa. And I’m trying to explain to people that this is not an ax. We’re not just saying, ‘Screw all of them, let’s run against everybody,’” Hogg said. “We’re trying to be a scalpel here. And it’s not just, it’s not about being out with the old and in with the new. It’s about being out with the ineffective and in with the effective.”
Hogg often points to Democrats’ losing ground with voters. Last month, a CNN poll found Democrats hitting a record low 29% voter approval. A Harvard Youth poll this week found congressional Democrats had a 23% approval rating among young voters, a 19-point drop since 2017.
Hogg hasn’t hesitated to hit back at the incoming vitriol, including swiping at some sacred cows in the Democratic Party, among them veteran strategist James Carville, who last week called him a “twerp.” Hogg has dismissed many of the criticisms, pointing to the presidential loss as evidence that perhaps a new approach should be welcomed.
When Scripps asked Hogg about Carville’s insult, he responded that Carville — who made his name as a key strategist for Bill Clinton's 1992 campaign — hadn’t won an election since before Hogg was born.
Hogg argues that the fallout over his proposal proves his points. The internal hubbub is a sign of a party in need of a jolt, and an effort to place a requirement for neutrality into the DNC bylaws illustrates that it isn’t there now — and therefore he hasn’t gone against rules dictating his duties, he said.
“It’s certainly a possibility, I’m sure,” Hogg told NBC News on Wednesday before news emerged that the DNC would discuss neutrality Thursday. “But that goes to the point that I’m saying how this is not a violation of the bylaws.”
“What I see here is that I am not in violation of the bylaws, and there is precedent for vice chairs being involved in primaries previously,” Hogg said, arguing that former vice chairs have backed incumbents in the past.
Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., has voiced strong backing for Hogg, including on X, where he recently said Hogg was doing “incredible work. He is supporting every frontline Dem & dems for state rep while also giving new candidates a chance to run in safe seats where we need change. Dems should embrace a new generation of leadership & competition!”
Another DNC member, labor leader Randi Weingarten, has also been outspoken about Hogg’s intention to challenge incumbents in safe areas.
“I support David’s efforts,” Weingarten said in a text Wednesday.
Hogg said that since all the attention last week, he has heard from hundreds of potential candidates who are interested in running. And he has seen an uptick in donations, though he didn't specify amounts.
Carville said Hogg's disparaging of the Democratic brand is overblown, saying the party's rank and file aren't happy with the direction of the last campaign.
"Of course people don't like the Democratic Party, because we lost an election. I don't like the Democratic Party — and I'm a Democrat — because I don't like parties that lose elections," Carville said.
Though he and Hogg have gone back and forth, mostly on TV, Carville said they probably do align on many issues. Carville, though, said that for all of Hogg's talk, he would be impressed if Hogg's efforts gained traction in battleground areas, like Virginia.
"See if they invite you to come in or invite you to send out fundraising appeals," Carville said. "Don't wait by the phone."
