Second Amendment advocates have been heaping scorn on David Hogg for years now, and for good reason. The gun control activist is not only wrong on the issue, but has repeatedly used the Parkland tragedy to raise his own personal profile; first with the anti-gun group March for Our Lives, and more recently with the political action committee he founded to elect younger Democrats to office. 

Historically, Democratic politicians have lauded Hogg for his activism, but now some of them are joining the chorus of critics because of his intent to use his Leaders We Deserve PAC to back primary challenges to an unknown number of incumbent Dems. That strategy would likely have caused Democrats heartburn regardless of his position, but with Hogg serving as a co-chair of the Democratic National Committee some of his fellow DNC officials are livid over his decision, and their contempt is now spilling out publicly at outlets like Politico.

 His announcement on Tuesday, pledging to spend $20 million on its efforts, triggered a wave of criticism and concern from some Democrats, including members of Congress, DNC members and Democratic strategists, many of whom expressed frustration over Hogg’s dual roles as an activist and party representative. Some took to social media to vent while others, including House members, called Hogg directly on Wednesday, trying to get clarity on his position.

The unprecedented move by a DNC official to spend money against Democrats is exacerbating intra-party tensions that have wracked the party in the second Donald Trump era.

“We, as the DNC, need to be seen as a body that can be trusted, that’s not putting its thumb on the scales,” said a DNC member, granted anonymity to speak candidly. “We have to be so strategic and careful with our resources right now. ... So why are we in this circular firing squad against Democrats?”

Well, the simplest answer is that Hogg is using his perch at the DNC to engage in the same kind of self-promotion that helped him get into Harvard and has kept him in the eye of the media long after other Parkland gun control activists like Cameron Kasky and Emma Gonzalez have left the spotlight. 

Everyone in our party says they want to start winning again, and they do—but that simply will not be possible with our current set of leaders, too many of which are asleep at the wheel, out-of-touch, and ineffective. As a result there are likely going to be stories in the next…

— David Hogg 🟧 (@davidhogg111) April 16, 2025

Hogg himself contends that he's merely trying to inject some new blood into the Democratic Party, but that claim is undercut by his decision not to interfere with the re-election plans of some of the left's oldest members of Congress. 

He recently told Democrats he’s willing to lose his vice chair position through the process, according to two people who spoke to him. He declined to say which members he would target in primaries, though he said the group would not intervene against former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi or Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.), both of whom have both drawn younger primary challengers. Democrats need to wrest only a few seats back from Republicans to reclaim the majority in the House, their best path to gaining a check on Trump’s second administration. 

Why wouldn't Hogg help those younger primary challengers oust the 85-year-old Pelosi and 80-year-old Schakowsky if his goal is to support "challenges to 'asleep-at-the-wheel' Democrats in safe-blue seats", as Politico reports? Seems to me that this is once again a demonstration of Hogg's self-interest at work. By targeting rank-and-file members of Congress instead of high-ranking officials like Pelosi (a former House speaker) and Schakowsky (the current senior chief deputy whip for the Democrats in the House), Hogg may be hoping to look like a rebel with a cause while still carefully trying not to step on the toes of anyone too powerful in Democratic circles. 

I doubt it will work, honestly, but Hogg is a bigger problem for Democrats these days than he is for Second Amendment advocates, so I'm content to pop some popcorn and watch the intra-party fight play out to completion... at least until the primaries are over. Once Democratic primary voters have decided which anti-gun candidates they'll run in the midterms it will be up to 2A activists to highlight their hostility towards a fundamental civil right and work to ensure they're defeated next November, but for now we can enjoy the spectacle of Democrats having to deal with Hogg's insufferable self-aggrandizement.