David Hogg: The Democratic Party Needs to Change or Lose

Is the DNC a credible, respectable, reliable institution? >> We can't have a message of simply [music] saying who we are not and saying, "Well, we're not Donald Trump. We're not Donald Trump. Who are we?" >> What about people who say you should have stayed and fought from the inside? You took the [music] easy way out. >> When you tell people not to believe their eyeballs or wallets, you're going to lose them. And I don't I don't believe that's something that's simply going to be changed by messaging. >> Chuck Schumer and Hakeim Jeff are the leaders of the Democratic party in Congress right now. Are [music] they the right leaders? >> No. Chuck Schumer in particular is putting himself on very thin ice. >> You're young in politics. Do you have plans to run? >> He went from being a Democratic Party rising star to then being shut out by the party's top leaders for supporting primary challenges to Democratic incumbents. Yes, I'm talking about none other than David Hog, the gun control activist and Parkland shooting survivor who's now focusing his efforts on encouraging younger progressives to enter into politics with his pack, Leaders We Deserve. And at a time when Trump's fascism puts people at home and abroad at risk, there's perhaps never been more of a need for younger, more inspired voices to rise to the challenge of resistance. David Hog joins me now. David, thanks so much for coming on the show. >> Thanks for coming on. >> Last time I saw you was at the Zoran Mandani election night event. That was a historic night. I think it's >> a breath of fresh air. >> A breath of fresh air in this moment. Uh you've been on this kind of I want to call it a roller coaster journey from activist from like gun control activist to then Democratic party activist last summer after getting elected uh to the DNC. What was your title? Remind people what was vice chair. >> You were one of the vice chairs. You came under fire by members of the DNC for saying you would focus your efforts on supporting primary challenges to asleep at the wheel incumbents >> in safe seats. in safe seats. Talk to me about some of the backlash you received and why was the establishment so hostile to the idea >> because it was a challenge to the status quo. Our party is at a crossroads here where we look at somebody like Zoran, right? A candidate where our party what have we said since the election? Oh my god, we lost young people. We have to win back young people. Then you have somebody like Zoron who gets th tens of thousands of young people to volunteer for him. Y >> and also got three times the 18 to 24y old turnout of Kla Harris. And what does the party do to him? We say no, no, no. We can't win back young people like that. And here's what we have to decide. Does our party want to keep the status quo and stay in the minority? Or do we want to change who we are as a party and have the actual chance of getting into a a governing majority? Because >> the answer to that question for a lot of people is no. >> Is to keep things the same and just hope that Donald Trump does such a bad job. Yes. that the country comes back that that our country comes back >> and is begging for anything different. And I don't believe that our party should be like that because that's a race to the bottom. We can't have a message of simply saying who we are not and saying, "Well, we're not Donald Trump. We're not Donald Trump. Who are we?" And that's part of the reason why we're doing obviously what we're doing in these primaries to challenge our party to be better. And look, as much as I may not agree with people like Marie Perez, obviously who won in a Trump plus 10 district, the work that we're doing at Leaders We Deserve isn't to go after people like her, as much as I disagree with her on so many things, because we need to actually have a majority. Our work is focused on people like people in safe seats like Valerie Fushi or Steve Lynch or Steve Cohen, Democrats who've taken tons of corporate money and have failed repeatedly to stand up for the constituents. >> Uh we'll come back to the primaries in a moment. DNC chair Ken Martin endorsed a proposal at the time last year that would have forced you to choose between the vice chair position and supporting primary challenges. A leaked recording to Politico revealed he even accused you of having destroyed your ability to effectively lead Democrats. Did you agree with that analysis? When I was talking to the chair about what happened, what I proposed to him ultimately, and this is getting into the weeds of things, uh, but ultimately what I proposed to him was I said, "Look, I understand that you all have these concerns about, uh, somebody getting involved in primaries in a party position, right? What if you did this? Instead of changing the bylaws after the election like we have, why don't you create a grandfather clause so that I will endorse this policy of everybody having to remain neutral in all primaries after my term is over because I ran under the rules as they were, which didn't say anything about primaries other than the presidential. >> Yeah. >> And I'll support that policy, which I think is fair because I don't think that we should set the precedent that what happened to me can happen to somebody because the the chair comes in and says, "I'm going to change the rules now that the election is passed." that was roundly rejected and then conveniently I would argue they found an issue with the gender balance rule and decided to redo the election at which point I said you know what if this is really what we're focused on as Donald Trump is going out there and terrorizing people with ICE and so much more we bigger fish to fry liking this video then don't just watch hit like share and subscribe and tap the bell so you never miss a video or live show but if you want early access to exclusive content then you have to head to zateo.com and subscribe now you'll be supporting fearless independent journalism. >> What about people who say you should have stayed and fought from the inside? You took the easy way out. Why did you leave? You should have run for re-election and carried on fighting the good fight. >> Well, the reality is that I had much more to focus on because I also realized at the DNC in the vice chair position, it's a largely symbolic role. You're essentially serving at the discretion of the chair. And honestly, I increasingly wonder why it's even an elected position to begin with. If you're not going to have any authority to really do anything more than a normal DNC member, I don't I don't understand why >> it would even be elected. But what I wanted to focus on clearly was not going to be possible at the DNC because I said we need to bring in fresher faces. We need to elevate young people more and we need to address the fact that we lost droves of young people last election cycle. And our message to voters was to say when they told us prices were too high, we said no, they aren't. Look at the GDP and look at the stock market. When they told us Joe Biden was too old, we said, "No, he's not." And then 107 days before the election, yes, he is. When they told us there's a real crisis happening in Gaza, we said, "Well, Donald Trump's going to be a lot worse. You don't understand. It's not actually that bad." When you tell people not to believe their eyeballs or wallets, you're going to lose them. And I don't I don't believe that's something that's simply going to be changed by messaging because this is a courage problem. This is a messenger problem. And we the thing I think part of the reason why we focus so much on messaging over and over and over again in our party is because you can change what you say but not change who you are. And ultimately our party needs to change who it is in order to get to a governing majority. >> But to change who it is, you have to go through the DNC. And I feel like the Democratic National Committee that these three letters DNC for a long time now, but especially since the Bernie Sanders race in 2016 and obviously um the Gaza issue and the convention last year, these three letters DNC have become almost like an insult, right? They just people talk about the DNC. >> Nobody really talks about it in a positive way. Yeah. And I just wonder what do you do about that? What do you do about what's your view now having been on the inside of DNC? Is the DNC a credible, respectable, reliable institution? Is it fit for purpose? >> I think right now what one thing that we have to understand is a lot of the time when people are complaining about the DNC, we need to understand what actually is the role of the DNC. What is the role of the DC? What is the role of the DSCC? is the role of the DLCC, right? >> It's just become a symbol for the establishment, >> right? It just becomes a symbol, a catch-all for the establishment when people say like, "Oh, there's too many conservative Democrats in Congress, the DNC is the reason to blame." Frankly, as much as I, you know, I'm happy to talk about the problems that the DNC, that's not the DNC's fault because they're really focused on being the presidential campaign and in waiting helping. If you want to talk about issues with the actual presidential primary, that is within the purview obviously of the DNC. And I think what the purpose that they're serving and the kind of crossroads that we're at, to be honest with you, I I don't envy the position that Ken Martin is in because there's a lot of people who want the DNC to effectively either be a referee or a player, right? People, there's one philosophy that says they're just going to set the rules for primaries and that's all they're going to focus on and they're not going to get involved in races, right? There's another side that says, well, I want them to push my version of what the party should be, but the thing is if it it can't do that for everyone. So we end up in this situation where nobody is happy because ultimately we're trying to make it something that really it shouldn't be in the long run. >> I'm going to ask you a question. I ask a lot of our guests here on Zato. Uh Chuck Schuman, Hakeim Jeff are the leaders of the Democratic Party in Congress right now. Are they the right leaders? >> No. >> Why? >> Have you seen their strongly worded letters? >> I know why. I'm just wondering what your case is. >> I I think I I don't think this should be equally applied to be honest with you. I think Chuck Schumer far more than Jeff needs to go. I think we need to have a serious conversation about whether or not Hakee Jeff continues to be the speaker. I only say that because >> he has only served obviously in the minority role. So, it's hard it's hard to judge somebody when they actually haven't had the power to do that. With somebody like Chuck Schumer though, >> he has he has been in that position. And what I'll say is you cannot go out there and say when it comes to something as important as ACA subsidies when Republicans are trying to cut healthcare for millions of people, we are absolutely not going to let that happen and say things like when this happens like he made this whole video about absolutely [ __ ] not. It was great at the time and then all of a sudden we see all these Democrats fold after a monthsl long government shutdown. And that means one of two things happened. Either he lost his control of his caucus or they went against him. Either of which is unacceptable. And I think right now Chuck Schumer in particular is putting himself on very thin ice. He is backing some the DSC and Chuck Schumer are backing some of the least charismatic worst fundraising people I have seen in my entire life. And this is not of all the primaries of all the years to do this in. It is not right now because we're seeing with people like Graham Platner. >> Yes. >> Even after the DS drops all this oppo on him. And to be honest with you, I think we we need to do that in our primaries. That is part of the purpose of our primaries because I'm sure inevitably that stuff will come out in the general and I don't want us to lose the general obviously but the fact that they tried to do that >> and Graham responded so successfully has doubled the fundraising of his opponent who has the backing of the DSC who has the backing of the establishment who has the backing of governor. >> It's crazy. >> You founded Leaders We Deserve with the mission to primary incumbent Democrats in safe seats with younger more progressive candidates. I just wonder how are some of those Democrats in those seats reacting to your work? What is the what is the attack on you? Like what do you say to people who say this is not the right tactics? This is not the right time. You're sewing division in the party at a time when everyone should be focused on Trump. What are what do you say? >> What I would say is one, we go we do more than just primaries. That's the stuff that obviously gets the most attention, but we do work in red to blue races. We do work in state legislative races. The the minority of races that we work in actually are primaries. And that's because frankly, to be honest with you, there are good Democrats in Congress who are older that should be there. There are some who obviously shouldn't be and those are the ones we're looking to challenge. But it's not just enough to say, you know, is there a 31year-old running against this person who's really at the moment, right? That would be dumb. There's plenty of dumb, corruptible, stupid young people and there's plenty plenty of great older people who also have a lot of integrity. What we're trying to find are the young people who can genuinely do a better job. People like Nitto alum. And the reaction uh to to answer your question of those candidates is to say, "How dare you do this to me? This is so wrong." And now we have we're watching a situation where NITA alum is challenging Valerie Fushi, a candidate who's taken tons of money in North Carolina who's taken tons of money from Apac and got propped up by corporations as well. And we're seeing her in her final stretch, the final six days of her campaign that she's in right now. She's not talking about her record. She's not talking about what she's done for her constituents. She's not talking about what she's done in Congress. What she's doing is attacking me as a 25-year-old and saying, "How dare this organization and our >> she's being outspent, right?" Yes. In this race. >> Uh it's at least it's so what she was being outspent for a long time. I believe >> as an incumbent that's quite remarkable that you guys have raised more money for Nida Allen. >> It is pretty remarkable and it shows the weakness of Valerie Fushi at >> she said she's going to stop taking Apac money last year. I remember. >> Mhm. She did. >> Has that helped her campaign at all? Well, I think it put her in a very precarious position because it's like what what do you actually stand for in the first place? And Neta is somebody who Apac directly spent against and we're happy as some we want somebody who has the right values from the beginning. >> What is it like going up against Apac and their proxies in some of these less talked about primary races. >> So th this is a really interesting point. What's fascinating is we just did a poll in one of our in a race that we were considering getting involved in where Apac is spending. And we asked voters in our poll. It was about 700 people. So, it's a pretty large sample size. We asked voters in that poll, you know, do you hate Apac? And they said, the vast majority of them, yes. And then we we told those voters that said that they hated Apac and said they were voting for the Aback Apac backed candidate. Well, you're voting for, you know, Joe Smith who's voting wi who's getting support from Apac. Does that change your vote? And what they the vast majority of them say no. So that's the fascinating thing that's happening because if if >> even though our party says that we hate Apac and you know the majority obviously of Americans don't agree with them. That's part of the reason why when Apac runs their ads, it's almost never about Israel. And then they also have to hide where that money is coming from by creating things like elect Chicago women or affordable Chicago elect, >> right? And what's fascinating is while our primary base says that they do care and they do care about Apac, all of a sudden when it's somebody that they know getting backed by them, a lot of the time that doesn't end up changing their support, which is crazy to me. The other thing that we need to do too is we have to realize if we're going to have candidates go out there against Apac, we need real backing, real money to back them up so that we aren't just asking candidates to go and, you know, endanger the future of their political career for this. And that's why what I would tell people to do is donate to candidates like Robert Peters, our candidate who's getting millions thrown against him by Apex Shellax in Illinois, the second congressional district. >> Cat's race in Illinois is getting tons of attention because >> right, incredible person, incredible race, but the second district also is having tons of money thrown in against Robert Peters who has done tons to take on special interests and that's not getting nearly enough. >> And is running in which seat? >> Uh, she is running in North Carolina's fourth congress. very narrowly of she almost won last time around. She came quite close >> in a crowded primary where her opponent was propped up with millions of dollars in money from Apac >> and it's interesting to have this rematch. Um you mentioned the raising of money. I mean the blight on American politics is obviously money in politics. Progressives have to fight with whatever tools they have. Like the system is the system >> and a hand tied behind our back at the same time. But what do you say to people who say you at the end of the day you're just exacerbating an already awful situation because you're also using money as a way to, you know, dominate politics. >> What I would say to them is our ultimate goal at leaders deserve is to make organizations like ours with super PACs illegal because it's we are enabled to exist by Citizens United. >> Yes. >> Here's the deal though. We can act like we live in a world where money doesn't matter or we can live in reality where we know that it actually does. We know that roughly 77% of people who raise the most money are the ones who end up winning their primaries in Democratic politics. We know I think it's 90% of the people who raise the most money in general elections end up winning. So unfortunately this is the reality that we're living in and what we do at Leaders We Deserve is we say to people this is wrong. It shouldn't be this way. But if we're ever going to change that system, it's not going to change from the inside by the people who get elected by groups like Apac and take so much money from corporations like Valerie Fooi. Um, so what we do is we ask people to donate5 or 10 dollars to support our work so that our candidates don't take support from corporations. >> Uh, last question. Your group donated $300,000 to the Working Families Pack to help Zaran Mandani ultimately become mayor of New York City, which he did. He won the primary against the odds. He won the general against the odds. What role do you think his victory plays when it comes to Democrats think about the future of the party? How much has the Mani victory changed the calculus in cities like Washington DC inside of the DNC? When it comes to the 2028 primaries, have people really paid attention or is it kind of he's just aberration? Let's focus on Abigail Spamberger and Mikey Cheryl. >> I think that there's an acknowledgement that there are different types of Democrats that can win in different types of places. And >> I say this as a hardcore progressive myself. I would love, right, if if Zoron uh with the exact same type of policies could go and win in West Virginia or any other state for that matter. and that we should try to run candidates there and build them up and do the work of persuading that progressives need to do a lot more of to get people in support because we can't just go out there and say well just go and vote for I argue we need to make real argument and importantly we also need them to be good at governing right we are really hurting ourselves if we elect people uh thankfully Zoron has been very good at that but if we elect people that genuinely struggle to get things done that really ends up hurting us because there are already so few of these progressives in government to begin with >> um I think what we're learning though, is that like I said, we have to run people where they can win. And ultimately, what wins is listening to people. What Zoron did in his race is what every candidate should learn, which is that when he started running, he didn't go out there and say to voters, "This is what I'm going to do for you. I'm so great. I'm perfect." He went out there and asked them, "What can I do? What can I do for you? How can I help you? What do you want to see in your mayor?" And I think there's a lesson to be learned for that. no matter how red or blue of a city that somebody is running in or a a district that they're running in is listening to those voters and building a winning coalition around those issues and not just only relying on polling to say like well these are the top five issues right now that likely voters say they care about. What was really remarkable about what Zoron did is he stuck to his values and he actually expanded the electorate because Andrew Cuomo with the traditional electorate would have won. what they didn't account for was a candidate who actually offered something new. And that's exactly why we are so proud to support Zaron in that race. And we saw across the country 10,000 plus people sign up after he was elected with our friends over at Run for Something to run for office. Uh but ultimately this is not as great as Zoron is, as great as you know, some of the other candidates that we've elected are like Molly Cook in Texas or others. No single person's going to solve this, right? We shouldn't kid ourselves about that. We need people >> across the country, progressives at every level of government to do the hard work and be willing to fail their first time or their second time. If Nida didn't run that first time in her race, >> yes, >> it would be, I think, so much harder for her to run right now because when you try, the great thing about being young in politics is you can try again. You can run again and learn those lessons because your opponents, they're not going to be around forever because a lot of the time they are way older than you are. >> You're young in politics. Do you have plans to run? >> No. And the reason why is because when I was younger, I said when I was 25 after the Parkland shooting, I said, "Oh, I want to run for Congress when I'm when I'm 25." And then I helped Maxwell Frost get elected, worked with his campaign, was on his kitchen cabinet calls for my dorm room, you know, every Thursday at 9:00 am. And when I was in college and what I realized with him was that there are so many people like Maxwell out there or Nida or um others that have exactly what we need more of in office but don't have the resources to get elected, don't have the right advising to get elected. And what I think about is how am I most useful to the progressive movement? and obviously first and foremost addressing gun violence. Is it better for me to be one vote in Congress even in an optimal situation where, you know, I would get elected and everything I do gets blocked by the filibuster and then I'm a lightning rod that Republicans are able to raise twice as much off of because, you know, the, you know, whatever they would call me, uh, was mixed in with hog is in Congress, or is it better for me to fight asymmetrical warfare and help get 30 or 40 great young people elected around the country, not just to Congress, but also the state legislatores? Because part of what we do is we don't just focus on Congress. About half the resources that we're going to use this year to to support candidates are also going to state legislatores. And it's not just in purple states. It's in the states that we have to start building benches in like Georgia, like North Carolina, like Florida, like Texas, where if we're going to have a pathway to the White House after the 2030 census, God willing, we're still a democracy by that point. We have to act as if we're going to be though. We're going to need to win in those states. And we're really proud to be supporting candidates like Akar Ali in states like Georgia, Malik Cook in Texas and candidates all over the country to help build the blue wall of the 2030s. >> The blue wall. David Hog, we'll have to leave it there. Thank you so much for your time. >> Thanks so much. Did you like this video? Don't forget to subscribe to this YouTube channel and turn on notifications. For exclusive content and to support our independent, unfiltered journalism, head over to zateo.com. Your support matters.

“I think part of the reason why [the Democrats] focus so much on messaging over and over and over again in our party is because you can change what you say, but not change who you are. And ultimately, our party needs to change who it is in order to get to a governing majority.” In this ‘Mehdi Unfiltered’ interview — Mehdi Hasan sits down with former DNC vice chair David Hogg to discuss the current state of the Democratic Party and whether or not it has a future. In the conversation, they discuss Hogg being ousted for his efforts to unseat safe incumbents and being seen a ‘challenge to the status quo.’ Hogg also shares his new effort in progressive politics through his PAC ‘Leaders We Deserve,’ if Democratic leadership should resign and if he’s considering a political run himself. This interview published last month on zeteo.com. If you want early, exclusive access to this kind of independent, unfiltered journalism — subscribe to our Substack here: https://zeteo.com/subscribe If you want to increase your financial support for our work and help us grow, donate to Zeteo! https://zeteo.com/p/donate-to-zeteo CHAPTERS 00:00 Intro 01:28 DNC Backlash 04:53 Leaving the DNC 06:19 Credibility 08:09 Democratic Leadership 10:06 Leaders We Deserve 12:13 AIPAC 15:39 Mamdani and Progressives Subscribe to Zeteo to support independent and unfiltered journalism: https://zeteo.com/subscribe Find Zeteo: Twitter: https://twitter.com/zeteo_news Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/zeteonews TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@zeteonews Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/zeteo.com Find Mehdi: Substack: https://substack.com/@mehdirhasan Twitter: https://twitter.com/@mehdirhasan Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/@mehdirhasan Tik Tok: https://www.tiktok.com/@mehdirhasan To advertise on the show, contact sales@advertisecast.com or visit https://advertising.libsyn.com/Zeteo