David Hogg Wants Democrats To Hear Uncomfortable Truths

The progressive activist and Parkland shooting survivor is running to be vice chair of the Democratic National Committee.

David Hogg, a survivor of the 2018 Parkland, Florida, school shooting, who became a vaunted progressive activist, announced plans Monday to run for vice chair of the Democratic National Committee.

And Hogg, who is currently president of Leaders We Deserve, a group backing Gen Z progressive candidates for office, is not seeking the position to make friends.

The Harvard graduate and co-founder of the gun control group March for Our Lives is running partly out of frustration that his warnings that Democrats had a problem with young men went unheeded before Election Day, and wants to make sure the party doesn’t make the same mistake twice. That means not just taking seriously the party’s waning traction with young men, but also being generally more encouraging of honest feedback from good-faith critics, according to Hogg.

“Part of the issue is that we’re surrounding ourselves with people who tell us what we want to hear instead of what we need to hear,” Hogg said. “I get that it’s uncomfortable to be told what you don’t want to hear, but we need to build that culture as a party.”

Hogg is still struck by the “ridicule” with which his warnings were met at a brunch held by the DNC Finance Committee during the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, including follow-up messages from prominent Democrats admonishing him to stop publicly discussing the topic.