Politics
NEW: David Hogg Elected As DNC Vice-Chair
Far-left gun control activist David Hogg emerged successful in his bid to become one of three Democratic National Committee (DNC) vice chairs on Friday night.
After four rounds of voting, two candidates garnered more than the required 205 votes as Hogg secured 214.5 votes, while Pennsylvania State Rep. Malcom Kenyatta, a far-left radical who supported the “defund the police” movement, won 209 votes. Artie Blanco of Nevada was also elected as a vice chair during the third of voting.
“Who’s ready to take the fight to the Republicans and win this thing? Are you guys ready to fight?” Hogg said in his victory speech. “It’s been a long day, but guess what? We have a long road ahead. Let’s go and kick some ass. Let’s go win our young people back, and let’s stop sending just our thoughts and prayers to address gun violence and do something.”
Hogg, who launched a political and media career after his classmates were murdered in the Parkland High School shooting in 2018, initially considered a bid for the top job before running for vice chairman. “I’m considering it because I think that one, obviously, I think we need a new generation in the DNC. If this election has taught us nothing else, I think we need an intergenerational coalition as a party,” Hogg said during an appearance on CNN back in November.
Hogg and a handful of his classmates became the faces of national gun control efforts in the wake of the Parkland shooting. The students spoke at the March for Our Lives rally in Washington D.C. and told Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) that it is hard to look at him and not see him “shooting my classmates.”
The gun control activist, who styled himself as an “entrepreneur” in the weeks following the shooting, went on to attend Harvard University and has become a regular on left-leaning television networks and speaking events.
When asked for specifics on the “delusion” gripping the Democratic Party, Hogg insinuated that too many left-wing pundits, activists and lawmakers are locked in a bubble.
“I think it’s that we can just surround ourselves with people that agree with us a lot of the time in terms of the party leadership and also within the party itself and think that’s just who we need to be talking to constantly, instead of listening to people who don’t agree with us. Not that we inherently agree with them, but I think so much the issue that we have as a party right now is a fund a kind of condescending tone that we have in a number of ways where we’re seen increasingly as elitist, as out of touch,” he said. “And I think there are real conversations that we need to have. And we also need to help more, not just young people, but people from normal backgrounds run for office.”
Hogg, who publicly urged Vice President Kamala Harris to select Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as her running mate, pointed to the governor as a prime example of the type of candidates the party should be recruiting.
“I think Tim Walz is actually a great example of this, of running as a teacher and gaining all the experience that he had to out massively outperform even in a Trump-held district. Right? We needeveryday people from teachers to doctors to everybody in between to start running for office and help changing the future of this party and the face of this party as well.”
Hogg will be working under newly elected DNC Chairman Ken Martin, who served as the leader of the Minnesota Democratic Party before becoming the party’s national leader. “We have one team, one team, the Democratic Party,” Martin said after becoming DNC chair. “The fight is for our values. The fight is for working people. The fight right now is against Donald Trump and the billionaires who bought this country.”
In 2020, the new DNC chair referred to Trump as a “traitor” and called for him to be tried for treason. “[Donald Trump] should be immediately impeached and then put on trial for treason,” Martin wrote on June 29, 2020, citing an anonymously sourced news story. “His actions led to the deaths of American soldiers. He is a traitor to our nation and all those who have served.”
