This 25-year-old Democrat tried to make way for the next generation, then they tried to oust him

Telegraph

22-05-2025

David Hogg warned Democrats they need to stop scolding voters and win back the young men who fled into the arms of Donald Trump.
Now party elders are trying to topple the 25-year-old from his role as vice-chairman of the Democratic National Committee (DNC), alleging his election was not 'diverse' enough.
Party figures warned that the attempted removal of Mr Hogg is 'emblematic' of the party's failings namely, its obsession with identity politics to the detriment of addressing serious issues.
Speaking to The Telegraph, Mr Hogg said the situation was 'frustrating' but vowed to run again as vice-chairman, and warned the exodus of young Democrat voters in recent years should be a 'huge red blinking light' for the party.
Mr Hogg raised hackles just weeks after being elected when he declared Democrat leaders were 'unwilling or unable' to meet the challenge posed by Mr Trump.
'We need a stronger Democratic Party that is ready to fight back,' he said, and pledged his campaign group, Leaders We Deserve, would spend $20 million backing primary challengers with 'energy' and 'passion' to 'asleep at the wheel' incumbents.
Ken Martin, the DNC chairman tasked with rebuilding the party after its losses in November, is a moderate Democrat and is viewed as a steady hand on the tiller. Many in his home state, including Republicans, don't have a bad word to say about him.
Mr Hogg is different.
A survivor of the 2018 Parkland school shooting, he is now in his mid-twenties and is a rare fresh face of a party increasingly under the control of a gerontocracy.
He announced his run for DNC vice-chairman in December on a platform of winning back young people who had defected to vote for Mr Trump at the presidential election. (The US president credits his success in the youth vote with his appearance on various podcasts at the advice of his teenage son, Barron).
For Mr Hogg, the Democrats are seen as too sanctimonious, too puritanical, and stale.
'To the drift of young men, I think one component is that they feel like we're down on them, elitist… like we don't like them,' he continued, saying they want to 'focus on being a young person and enjoying [their] lives'.
In particular, Democrats failed to address young people's fears about the economy and rising cost of living at the last election, Mr Hogg believes.
Urging his party to focus on 'spectacle' over 'statistics', he said Donald Trump has managed to tap into voters' concerns by speaking 'the language of Wrestlemania', while Democrats still 'speak the language of debate club'.
'People feel like we are condescending to them, that we don't respect them and that this graph tells me that you shouldn't feel this way,' he said.
'When actually it's not what economic data is saying, it's what people are feeling.'
Mr Hogg was elected to his DNC position in February, alongside 34-year-old Malcolm Kenyatta, but the result was challenged later that month by Kalyn Free, a 61-year-old Native American woman.
Ms Free, having failed in her bid to become vice-chairwoman, claimed the party should have held separate ballots for men and women to ensure a gender-balanced result.
The DNC's credentials committee upheld the challenge, paving the way for Mr Hogg's ousting. Another election will be held to fill the vice-chairman slots if approved by the party membership.
Whether or not the party precisely applied its own rules, Democrat politicians and others have questioned the wisdom of re-running an election at a time when Republicans are painting it as 'woke' and out of touch.
'The process they're using to try to remove him is emblematic of what's wrong with the Democratic Party and what people see as its failings,' Larry Ceisler, a Democrat strategist, told The Telegraph.
'It's seen as a party that's more concerned with identity politics than it is with the issues. And they do have an issue with young men.'
Mr Hogg stopped short of saying the party had moved against him as a result of his pledge to challenge incumbent Democrats, but said party members had suggested this to him.
'It's impossible to ignore the broader overtones to this decision,' he said, adding: 'What I have heard from DNC members that I talked to is that they don't believe that this would have gone past' otherwise.
'Very flawed mechanism'
Mark Pocan, a Democrat congressman for Wisconsin, warned the DNC would become 'irrelevant… if they punish duly elected leaders like David Hogg because they disagree with him'.
Mr Ceisler, who disapproves of Mr Hogg's attempts to challenge Democrat incumbents, nevertheless believes the party leadership is using a 'very flawed mechanism' to oust him.
Brad Bannon, a long-time party strategist, agrees Mr Hogg's $20 million would be better spent taking on Republicans in marginal districts instead of Democrats in safe ones, but said the new vice-chairman is one of the party's best chances to revive itself.
'He's a useful voice and he has something to say. And I think having a young, 25-year-old in the party hierarchy is a very good thing,' he said.
Mr Hogg noted a poll last month showing Democrats' support among young people had fallen by 19 points since 2017, compared to just a one per cent fall for Republicans.
'That is a huge blinking red light that people feel like we are not fighting so they feel like they're not representing them,' he said, saying his party 'shouldn't listen to the consultants that brought our party here'.
The sight of Democrats descending into civil war instead of training their sights on Mr Trump, who is under fire from Republicans after accepting a $400 million jet from Qatar, might have been considered bad enough.
But the party is pushing out a 25-year-old rising star in the same week that questions over Joe Biden's physical and mental decline mount following his prostate cancer diagnosis.
According to a new book, Mr Biden was at a fundraiser last year when he failed to recognise the actor George Clooney – not only one of the most recognisable faces on the planet, but someone he has known for almost two decades.
He is also said to have forgotten the names of close advisers, some of whom have been by his side since the 1980s.
Some aides reportedly fretted that Mr Biden's physical decline meant he would need a wheelchair if he won a second term. (In the end he was forced to step aside for Kamala Harris, the 59-year-old vice-president, following a faltering debate performance against Mr Trump).
Just last week two Democrats were spotted falling asleep in congressional committees: representatives Debbie Dingell, 71, who was filmed slumped back in her chair with her chin tilted towards the ceiling, and 80-year-old Jan Schakowsky.
In fairness, both had been in marathon budget sessions and Blake Moore, a Utah Republican, was also seen dozing off – but the clips had already gone viral on social media.
Mr Bannon believes the perceptions of an aged, exhausted party are damaging. 'That's why we need people like David Hogg', he said, urging party elders to step aside to let a new generation make their mark.
'What's happening is a generational change… after taking a back seat in the party for so long, young Democrats want their chance to shine. They should have it,' he said.
'And the baby boomers, who have controlled the Democratic party for a long time, now have to give it away.'