DNC chair rebukes David Hogg for pushing primaries against Democratic incumbents
A number of party leaders are frustrated that Hogg, who has a leadership position in the party, is pushing primaries against some incumbents in deep-blue seats.
Democratic party leaders Thursday morning admonished officers to not take sides in primaries, addressing a situation involving activist and Democratic National Committee vice chair David Hogg.
"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 in a press 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 to the bylaws to extend that policy of neutrality to all primaries," DNC Finance Chair Chris Korge told NBC News. "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 is to be addressed at a future meeting, 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 harkens 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, referencing 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."
On Thursday, Martin went on to say he had spoken to Hogg about what he perceived as a conflict but he did not expound on whether he gave him an ultimatum.
"I understand what he's trying to do," Martin continued in the press 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 on Thursday, Hogg cited Trump's power clashes with institutions in saying the party needed to take more aggressive actions. He added that he had not 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.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2026-election/david-hogg-disrupts-democratic-party-rcna202202Open linkView original on lemmy.world
How dare he rock the boat when the current bunch are doing so well.
Hey man, we gotta be patient, the old guard is really busy doing absolutely nothing
Oh c'mon! Insider trading, setting up offshore accounts and shell companies is work!
That's exactly the plan. Schumer has said out loud that the plan is to just let the republicans off the leash, let them sink their own poll numbers and hope they teach the voters a lesson.
That lesson, of course, being that you can put a Democrat in office to do nothing, or you can put a Republican in office and the democrats will still do nothing. These fossilized assholes need a solid kick in the pants. I would like to wish Schumer and his ilk a very merry get fucking lost.
the current DNC strategy is let the gop+trump do enough damage in the hopes that old guard dems eek out a win, any win will do.
There's totally moderates we can flip guys, totally! We're hot on their trail!
the old guard DEMs works with the old guard gop behind the scenes to get deals through, which arnt immediately clear to public. most europeans can see right through the performative politics of the 2 party system.
Note that the text OP posted above is NOT the whole article!!
IDK why that isn't made clear?
David Hogg is right IMO, the party needs a reset, and the platform needs a reset. For one: Calling themselves the Democratic party, they really should work more to improve democracy in USA! As it is they are not really democrats any more than people calling themselves pro life when in fact they aren't at all pro life. What they are is against abortion rights.
Likewise the Democrats have helped maintain the status quo, in a dysfunctional flawed democratic system.
its a community rule not to post the whole article, so I posted some of it
i agree with hogg that the party needs a reset, but the vice chair of the party should not be the one making that comment because it gives all appearances that the party will be picking and choosing the primary candidates and throwing their weight behind their preferred candidate. that's going to lead to party fractures and a lot of hard feelings. you want to ensure more republicans winning easier than they should on the local level? have the party pick the candidate instead of the people in the district.
that's why i am very glad the chair has pretty much laid down the law. the party leadership (save one) is committed to electing democrats wherever they are whoever they are. one person in leadership is committed to electing specific democrats to office.
which if you think about it is a colossal failure. he's down in florida. he's had ample opportunity to elect his chosen democrats in florida with his pac. how successful were his candidates? and you've got people who see that (lack of) success he had in florida and say, "yeah, let's take that plan and apply it nationwide, even if the better democrat for an area isn't someone that hogg prefers."
It's neat how this hasn't been a concern until just now.
Maybe they shouldn't commit to democrats that continuously vote with the Republicans?
I don't see why there shouldn't be standards.
Tell that to Sanders, Clinton, and Harris... That's just recent memory...
🙄 🤡 🤦♀️
They straight up told us who the nominee would be against Trump. What a fucking joke. "Democracy is in peril so we have to suspend democracy.
In this past election, it's kind of a non-issue. Both parties have always had it in their rules that if the nominee drops out after the primaries, the party can select a new nominee without holding another primary. And to be honest, it's an understandable rule, at least within the scope of an overall shitty system. People generally aren't going to show out for primaries, then watch a nominee drop out, then show out for yet another round of primaries, and then show out for a general election. It's hard enough just to get people to vote once.
Prior to 2024 though, the DNC and DCCC putting their fingers on the scale to fuck Sanders and elevate Clinton is unforgivable.
The outrage is telling. Hogg is making an effort to introduce fresh faces and ideas at the primary level. This gives Democrats a chance to choose which ideas they want to go into play in congress. That is all.
If those voters are happy with what they currently have, the incumbent is safe. If not, those new ideas go up against opposing ideas. If a plurality like those ideas, they get to see them play out in congress. The only risk here is that they lose the seat.
Since at the moment, he's doing this in reliably blue districts, the risk is lower than elsewhere. This is a recipe for real change in the Democratic party for the better.
The only reason to fight against it so hard (that I see) is the protection of individuals' comfort at the expense of the welfare of our nation. It's evidence of moral rot in the the party that is threatened by true representation of the citizens' needs.
I support Hogg's efforts - as long as he does not have the morality of "boss Hogg". (For the kids out there who have no idea of what i mean, find and watch a season of The Dukes Of Hazzard.)
The democratic party is very big on hierarchy and pecking order from what I've seen. They believe that being a long time party member should count for much more than being an actually effective politician or persuasive speaker. To suggest that the ancient corpocentrists should be even remotely threatened is tantamount to heresy. That's why they were so horrified when Obama "stole" 08 from Hillary.
the donors control both the gop and dem , they are afriad they cant control the likes of future aoc, and BERNIES
Nothing surprising here but it is somewhat notable that the DNC response to activists whipping up enthusiasm and engagement among younger voters is to change the bylaws in order to stop them. Real pieces of shit, they are. Proven time and time again.
Woah, there, enthusiasm?! Listen, buddy, we prefer our voters begrudged.
Making reform impossible is a very dangerous game.
Rebuke away, ya dumb fuck Dems. What the young Mr Hogg is attempting — funding primary challengers to the most empty-suit Democrats — might be futile, might not, but you gotta respect the effort.
"Wake up, wake up," he shouts at the corpse of the Democratic Party, which will probably wake up only long enough to smack him away, and then go back to sleep.
Lmao and they can’t get rid of him, I fucking LOVE that.
Sucks to suck, status-quo old-guard fucksticks.
If they even fucking dare try its the very last time an entire generation votes D.
Yeah, like if they can't reform to represent their voters then we're gonna have to throw the whole party out. Not really the type of play I want to have to make in the current situation though.
What do they say? The best time to start working out was 10 years ago.
The second best time to start is now.
Generally inadvisable to work out while on life support. Want to at least get out of the icu first.
Context does matter
Eh, there's no shortage of clowns who'll defend them as the lesser evil (or, God forbid, actually good at what they do) and shut down any attempt at making things better no matter how low they sink.
This man has a good head on his shoulders. I still think there are better ways to use Hogg's position and funding, but political leadership for the day after will also be important so I'm not too miffed.
FUCK the DNC. They helped put us in this mess.
We remember 2016 and 2020. Stop lying about not interfering in primaries.
The single most important job of the DNC is keeping corporate candidates in office and keeping the money flowing. These fuckos have never been impartial. Anyone else still pissed at fucking Hoyer and the DCCC trying to get the progressive candidate to drop out of a primary?
From the above recording, Tellemann to Hoyer: "So before we, before we go any further on that, Crow is the favorite, in no small part Congressman Hoyer, because the DCCC not only put its finger on the scale, but started jumping on the scale very early on....I mean, it's undemocratic to have a small elite select someone and then try to rig the primary against the other people running. And that is basically what's been happening"
This was after the DNC had rat fucked Bernie, foisted Hillary on everyone, and lost to the serial failure, trump.
such bullsh!t - Hogg sees they aren't doing their jobs, they aren't fighting and they need to go. Good for him.
This is the problem, these establishment Democrats aren't supporting the people who are willing to fight, they want to write strongly worded letters and consider legislation... those days are gone.
Jefferies needs to be thrown out, Schumer needs to step back or walk away.
I really thought Martin would be good for the party but I'm not seeing it
This is a position the DNC has acted contrary to for decades, and only decided they conveniently held when someone wanted to primary centrists. Ken Martin is not a departure from the centrist wing of the party's decades of self-serving bad faith; he is a continuation and possibly an acceleration of it.
Justice for Bernie!
The gall of saying that DNC officers shouldn't ever influence a primary nominee after them shafting Bernie in 2016, and foisting Biden and then Harris on us in 2024. Silver lining I guess is now they're on record as having that policy and are likely codifying it
They'll rescind it as "outdated" when another Bernie shows up. They're pushing for neutrality because they know they're ahead with Bernie out for the count and AOC too captured by the establishment to be a real threat.
Thus marking the greatest opposition democrats have mustered against anything this year.
They always have money and energy to fight their own progressive wing.
As a liberal who donated literally hundreds of dollars last year to ActBlue thinking I was saving democracy, Democrats have completely lost me. I’m done. After a loss as bad as 2024, how those Democratic leaders all stay in their positions is beyond me. Schumer, Jeffries, the entire DNC should’ve been fired and replaced. They are losers who made us lose to a fucking moronic orange rapist. And the fact that they’re STILL lying about putting the thumb on Clinton’s scale over Bernie’s in 2016 is as dishonest as it is infuriating. Fuck the Democratic party forever.
(For the record, will continue voting blue because the most corrupt democrat is better than the nicest magat, but we need a new party on the Left STAT)
We get the left party by splitting the Democratic Party. The Republicans are dead-old-white-men-walking, they will implode. I’m Team Hogg on this one
I'm a bit confused by the wording here. When you say "split" I hear making a whole new party? But David Hogg is a vice chair of the Democratic Party, so being on his team implies not third party. Could you clarify?
Political parties can split. Parties can die.
an example from US history
Major upheavals in parties are inevitable.
Or we could just take it over, like what Hogg is actually trying to do. Parties shift focus much more easily than they die.
Indeed. It feels like a lot of historical context is missing in Lemmy political discussions. The Democratic party was the party of FDR, JFK, and LBJ. The Democratic Leadership Council took over the party after the left candidates failed to deliver election successes, but even then, the DLC had to do the work to take the party leadership positions, build a funding network, and win elections. Before that FDR had to wrestle party control from the the Dixiecrats.
Hopefully Hogg and allies will be successful in reforming the party once again.
Not just that, but even if you're looking for a major realignment, the Republicans were at one point the party of civil rights and the Dems were the bastion of white supremacy. You have to go past all these major party changes to actually get to the death of a party.
It's so much easier to force a realignment than to, during a time of active fascism, destroy the opposition party in hope that in a decade a completely fresh party can emerge from the ashes.
The question is: Will the DNC let you do that or will they sink with the whole damn ship? Because they have the tools (mostly money and connections, but also control of the party, immense social pressure and gaslighting) to stop you, dilute your final program or at the very least make your life hell every step of the way and significantly delay your planned takeover. Crucially, this is all happening and will keep happening during a time of active fascism when prompt and decisive action is needed, not compromise with Wall Street.
I mean, obviously I don't know how the internals of how the party works from first hand experience. That said I seriously don't think we should build them up into a bete noir. Every party is in the business of winning. The party went to the center because Nixon walloped McGovern, and Reagan crushed both his elections. Also, the DLC found a way to fund the party after labor support waned for a variety of reasons.
Did the party impede Sanders' primary campaign against Hillary? It's been acknowledged that they did. Of course he's been a career independent, and not a party member for one thing. Probably more importantly, party leadership still doesn't think going to the left will win nationally. Of course we choose our candidates through a primary process, but like it or not, the party's job is to win elections, and it's not outside the party's mandate to support candidates who they think will win.
But party leadership isn't a monolith, and it isn't a conspiracy. It is a group of people trying to make sense of things and find a way to succeed. Of course the old guard is resisting change because they still think they've got the recipe for success. Time will tell how it plays out. It's going to be hard work, and as party voters our ability to influence change in the party has been diluted by a bunch of consultants that are telling the old guard what they want to hear, and only face a reckoning every two years. I imagine, in the face of fascistic tendencies in the rightwing party, moderation and compromise will be even less attractive, even to a center left party. We've got to make our voice heard, and when we get a crack, we've got to deliver wins.
Hah, right. The more accurate statement would be something like
Lol there was literally 4 months left until the 2024 election when Biden dropped out. Using those few weeks to have a primary and lose the Biden-Harris warchest would’ve made no sense. Every single person that voted for Biden in the primaries ALSO voted for Harris. We all knew that if he stepped down, she’d step up. It literally made sense. Of all the criticisms against Democrats, this is a very very stupid one. The Democratic party would’ve imploded even harder than it already is. People that played the “We DiDnT vOtE fOr HER iN tHe PrImaRiEs” were literally just looking for an excuse to not vote in the general and not feel bad about themselves.
I mean, I literally didn't vote for Biden-Harris in the primaries. I think I voted for Dean Phillips?
But yeah, honestly, if they hadn't had Biden step down the election would have been an unmitigated disaster, like 1984 bad. I really think that they had a solid chance to win, but then they pivoted away from the excitement and new, raw energy in the Harris-Walz ticket and pivoted into "Look! It's Katy Perry and Beyonce, wow! Look, here's Obama lecturing down to black men, it's not even a little cringe! Look, it's Liz Cheney! Worried that we'll say mean things about republicans? We muzzled Walz!" At some point, it reminded me a lot of the HRC 16 campaign, and it turns out there was good reason for that: they put the top HRC '16 people in charge of the Harris campaign. If anyone ever deserves to get struggle sessioned, it's those folks. Maybe not killed, but definitely at least the public dunce hat treatment.
Maybe, instead of repeating disproven propaganda, you acknowledge the fact that Harris was not the candidate anyone left of burning orphans for warmth wanted.
She started out quite strong then the Hillary advisors stepped in and she started cozying up to "ex"Republicans as if that would get her some sort of cross support from the maga cult.
She started out strong solely from the idea that Biden finally stepped down and she might be different. Then within a day of the announcement she essentially sank her chances by suggesting she'd stay the course and that the Biden admin did well.
Regardless of her advisors, she said the Biden economy was good and she would continue it... That killed all reasonable votes from the poor and middle class.
Yeah, I still think that was the advisors. The DNC is really big on hierarchy and shit, and there's a lot of high ranking people that would have shit their pants in horror if Kamala had admitted anything bad about Joe.
She was kinda stuck with that though because she was still VP and whether fair or not that is also viewed as her economy. The economy being good and costs for the average citizen aren't the same thing anymore and I think that doesn't really "compute". Was a lot better than the current economy anyway...
Fuck the DNC. Complicit pieces of shit
Summarized translation from political speak:
Sweep out the old guard.
'Under no pretext should arms and ammunition be surrendered; any attempt to disarm the workers must be frustrated, by force if necessary' - Karl Marx
Sanders? Now that biden's not running anymore, age is disqualifying again.
AOC? Women suddenly can't win now that Clinton and Harris are no longer running.
Hogg? Welp, guess we suddenly like Marx and hate gun control. Until he's no longer a problem.
DNC be all like:
Go David!
A Democrat politician is not a lifetime appointment. Right now if you aren't actively being the solution, then you are part of the problem.
David Hogg bio
You can also learn about and/or donate to Leaders We Deserve
Hey many slammings = 1 rebuke?
Have to agree though, its so very unfair that Hogg is calling for any level of accountability for our reps performance in office. How dare he suggest our reps get off their arses and actually do any work at all for the democratic party, instead of just doing whatever the eff they want, including backing republican causes. Its outrageous.
Hogg is right and Martin is a fool. This do nothing say nothing change nothing is what got us here.
Controlled Opposition strikes again.
How bout actually winning people over on issues instead of forcing people to have no other option? Are these circumstances not dire enough to warrant appealing directly to the people to determine their preferred candidate and not keep losing elections to absolute clowns?
They’re not getting it. They haven’t been getting it for a long time. A shakeup at the top is long overdue.
"Pipe down, plebian"
Fuck the DNC.
Dinosaurs face pressure, news at eleven.
Until I can pour them into my gas tank, they're not facing enough pressure.
Any options for sending them a message aside from the DNC contact form?
Their mailing address:
DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL COMMITTEE 430 South Capitol Street Southeast Washington, DC 20003
What I'm sending:
"Please find enclosed a printed copy of an email sent to me by Leaders We Deserve in which they thank me for my donation to them. Here you can see that I am willing to donate to causes that credibly represent me. Pay special attention to the absence of a donation in this envelope, as it was not an oversight on my part."
If you do something similar, black out the "to" line on the email if you don't want all the spam.
I should have pointed out the mail as well, so thank you.
I more meant direct contact to individuals such as Ken Martin.
For that, you need to be someone that democrats actually listen to. How's your netanyahu impression?
Terrible, I unfortunately don't do a great impersonation of being all about the genocide.
That said, if there were any direct contact information, while I would expect individuals to be ignored, a large amount of direct response would be visible. I've already used the contact form, and have my letter written to go out today (not as concise as yours, so I may tweak it).
Just trying to find every avenue possible.
Sounds like endorsement to me.