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.
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?
Democratic party leaders Thursday morning admonished officers to not take sides in primaries
Lol! This, coming from the same folks that would rather back Republicans instead of progressives in their own party? Fuck these people. Primary them all.
We remember 2016 and 2020. Stop lying about not interfering in primaries.
DNC be all like:
Summarized translation from political speak:
Stop interfering with out interference!
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.
‘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.
Voters should decide who our primary nominees are, not DNC leadership.
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.
“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.
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!
Thus marking the greatest opposition democrats have mustered against anything this year.
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!
There’s totally moderates we can flip guys, totally! We’re hot on their trail!
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.
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.
“Pipe down, plebian”
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.
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.
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
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Note that the text OP posted above is NOT the whole article!!
IDK why that isn’t made clear?Since last week, Hogg has appeared on just about every cable news show and digital outlet, advocating for a party reset of sorts — not just because it lost the White House to Donald Trump, but also because, he said, it lost faith among voters.
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.
IDK why that isn’t made clear?
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.”
the party leadership (save one) is committed to electing democrats wherever they are whoever they are
Maybe they shouldn’t commit to democrats that continuously vote with the Republicans?
I don’t see why there shouldn’t be standards.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.
It’s neat how this hasn’t been a concern until just now.
