Why some centrist Dems fear David Hogg could ‘do more harm than good.’
David Hogg became the latest foil for Republicans when the young activist with a flair for far-left rhetoric was elected vice chair of the Democratic National Committee.
The fallout is quickly becoming a headache for Democrats, too.
David Hogg became the latest foil for Republicans when the young activist with a flair for far-left rhetoric was elected vice chair of the Democratic National Committee.
The fallout is quickly becoming a headache for Democrats, too.
https://www.newsweek.com/new-dnc-vice-chair-abolish-ice-immigration-2024991
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/new-dnc-vice-chair-sets-social-media-ablaze-radical-posts-exposed
Inside the Democratic Party, Hogg’s election — and the resulting coverage — has been accompanied by frustration among centrists that a 24-year-old March for our Lives co-founder with a million followers could hurt the party’s brand, especially in swing districts. They vented that his ascension is representative of Democrats’ failure to grapple with some voters’ frustration that the party is overly concerned with diversity and appeals to the far left.
https://www.politico.com/news/2024/12/22/democrats-2024-election-problem-focus-group-00195806
“The most worrying thing is if he carries into this new job a belief that saying what he was saying, but louder, is the way to prevail in red states,” said Matt Bennett, co-founder of the center-left group Third Way. “Because it isn’t … If he believes that it is, that’s going to be a real problem for our candidates in those places.”
Bennett added, “He came up as an activist, but now he is a party leader, and that’s a very, very different role.”
Another Democratic strategist, granted anonymity to speak candidly, complained that Hogg can now “go on TV as a vice chair for the DNC, speak on behalf of the Democratic Party, in a way that can do more harm than good.”
Hogg, who first rose to prominence after becoming a survivor of the 2018 school shooting at Parkland High School in Florida, pitched himself to DNC members as a solution to Democrats’ growing youth problem, calling for the party to make concrete efforts to include young people in party business — for example, by covering the costs of travel to meetings for people who make less than $100,000, a barrier for some hoping to participate. He argued in DNC candidate forums that Democrats shouldn’t be “afraid to talk about the hard-to-talk-about issues.”
“Our party failed to connect with voters this year because they felt like we ignored them. We need to listen again and have the tough conversations with people from across the political spectrum — and I’m committed to doing that work,” Hogg said in a statement to POLITICO.
During his DNC campaign, Hogg didn’t pitch himself as a hardcore ideologue. Rather, he urged the party to “become better storytellers” about what Democrats do because the “American people do not think we care about them” and they “don’t think we deliver for them.”