Gun control activist David Hogg’s efforts to help revamp the Democratic Party have been off to a rocky start thus far and some fellow Democrats are noticing, the Washington Post reported on Friday.
Leaders We Deserve — a political organization co-founded by Hogg — announced in June that it was backing Irene Shin in the special election to replace late Democratic Virginia Rep. Gerry Connolly, and also privately vowed to shell out $400,000 to help get Shin elected, the Washington Post reported. Despite this, Leaders We Deserve backed out of its financial commitment just days later, multiple anonymous Democrats told the outlet.
One anonymous Democrat told the Washington Post that the situation was “shocking.” Leaders We Deserve notably did not explain its reasoning for reversing course on its financial commitment, the anonymous sources told the outlet. Shin went on to lose the June 28 Democratic Primary for the special election to James Walkinshaw, Connolly’s former chief of staff, by a landslide margin of 45 percentage points.
Hogg was notably ousted from his position as a vice chair for the Democratic National Committee (DNC) in June. His ouster came after he drew intense criticism from fellow Democrats for unveiling a plan in April for Leaders We Deserve to spend $20 million to primary “out-of-touch, ineffective” older House Democrats in 2026.
“He [Hogg], clearly, not the mission, is front and center. And much of this money seems to be going toward self-promotion,” New York state Sen. James Skoufis, who ran for DNC chair in early 2025, told the Washington Post. “It’s not what we need right now as a Democratic Party.”
Yet, Kenneth Pennington, the digital director for Independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders’ 2016 presidential campaign and a partner at Middle Seat, one of Leaders We Deserve’s top consultants, told the Washington Post that the group’s efforts to elect younger leaders are “very smart.”
“What Leaders We Deserve is doing is not only not unusual, it’s very smart,” Pennington told the outlet. “And because David’s message is catching on, they are seeing massive grassroots funding success.”
Leaders We Deserve describes itself as an organization “dedicated to electing young progressives to Congress and State Legislatures across the country to help defeat the far-right agenda.” Just four of the candidates that Leaders We Deserve listed on its website as 2024 endorsements actually won their campaigns, according to the Washington Post.
Leaders We Deserve’s 2026 endorsements featured on its website include far-left Democratic New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, as well as Deja Foxx, who lost to Adelita Grijalva in the July Democratic primary for the special election to replace Grijalva’s father, late Democratic Arizona Rep. Raúl Grijalva. Shin is also listed under the organization’s 2026 endorsements, along with Democratic Illinois State Sen. Robert Peters, who is running in a crowded primary for an open Chicago-area House seat in 2026.
Still, Hogg insisted that his group’s objective is “not to simply throw money at candidates and hope they win.”
“On top of that, we’re making major investments into our grassroots donor network and capacity ahead of the election year,” Hogg told the Washington Post.
The 25-year-old also told the outlet that Leaders We Deserve is working with dozens of 2026 Democratic candidates “launching their campaigns very soon.”
The report comes as many Democrats have been expressing the need for new, younger party leaders. A Reuters/Ipsos pollreleased June 19 found that 62% of Democrats said they agreed with a statement that “the leadership of the Democratic Party should be replaced with new people.”
Moreover, DNC Chair Ken Martin, who had clashed with Hogg during the activist’s tumultuous four-month tenure as one of Martin’s vice chairs, told Fox News in late July that while the Democratic Party has “hit rock bottom,” there is “only one direction to go, and that’s up.”
Leaders We Deserve did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
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