The Democratic National Committee’s internal power struggles have spilled into public view once again—this time thanks to Vice Chair David Hogg, who has set off a firestorm within the party with his brash and unapologetic pledge to primary what he calls “asleep-at-the-wheel Democrats.” If the DNC was hoping to project unity ahead of the 2026 midterms, it just took a cannonball to the hull.
Hogg, a former gun control activist turned rising party official, took to the Sunday talk show circuit with a scorched-earth message: get on board with the progressive agenda, or get bulldozed. His public promise to support primary challengers against long-serving Democratic incumbents has sent shockwaves through the DNC apparatus. To party leadership, it’s not just reckless—it’s dangerous.
David Hogg, a DNC vice chair, is pledging to upend Democratic primaries by funding candidates who will challenge “asleep-at-the-wheel” Democrats. “Part of” the aim is to elect younger Democrats into Congress, Hogg tells @majorCBS, but he adds it’s also “a matter of… pic.twitter.com/0xCyJc0Sdq
— CBS News (@CBSNews) April 17, 2025
What Hogg likely envisioned as a grassroots push for accountability, DNC veterans see as an outright declaration of war. It undermines the party’s already fragile equilibrium at a time when unity is seen as critical in combating the reemergence of Donald Trump as a national political force.
In response, DNC Chair Ken Martin is reportedly preparing to unveil a sweeping new neutrality policy that would bar all party officers from endorsing candidates in any primary—not just the presidential contest, as the current rules stipulate. It’s a move designed to reassert control and signal that open warfare within the ranks won’t be tolerated. But whether it’s enough to rein in Hogg—or the movement he’s trying to galvanize—is far from clear.
Thursday’s upcoming DNC call is shaping up to be a showdown. Behind closed doors, senior Democrats are voicing frustration in increasingly blunt terms, calling Hogg’s maneuver a “middle finger” to efforts to restore trust in the party post-2016. Some are even pushing for his resignation, arguing that he’s creating new problems in a party that already has plenty.
DNC Vice Chair David Hogg says “Democracy” is responsible for school shootings and the climate crisis. pic.twitter.com/el1YnWvHEf
— AG (@AGHamilton29) April 18, 2025
The larger issue here is not just David Hogg—it’s the state of the Democratic Party as a whole. Leaderless, message-less, and deeply fractured, Democrats seem caught between the institutional forces trying to hold the center and a vocal progressive faction intent on reshaping the party by force.
This is the same DNC that, nearly a decade after the Bernie-Hillary civil war, still hasn’t resolved the central identity crisis that split it in the first place. Is it the party of moderation, electability, and strategic messaging? Or the party of moral purging, ideological tests, and endless internal revolutions?
Hogg’s gambit may be tactically questionable, but it’s certainly revealing. He’s giving voice to a generation of activists who believe the party has failed to deliver. And if the DNC’s solution is to slap another neutrality pledge on a festering wound, they may find that the next civil war isn’t just rhetorical.
