The Democratic Party feels the heat of its burn-it-down, ultra-progressive wing.

I remember well back in early February when David Hogg — the former youth anti-gun activist, unavoidable since 2018 as the obnoxiously hectoring, subliminally discomfiting face of the “March for Our Lives” — was elected vice chair of the Democratic National Committee. It was uproariously funny, and I celebrated it, gleeful at the idea that the real powers that be within the DNC were so desperate for credibility with America’s Disaffected Activist Youth that they said, “Yeah, David Hogg – that’s a great idea.” I understood the underlying imperative — the Democrats legitimately have an electoral issue with Gen Z — but Hogg is a fundamentally absurd character, more a mascot than anything else:

Hogg — I would very much like to call him “Boss Hogg” from now on, but it’s hard to imagine this kid in charge of anything, even the fumbling effort to bring down those ol’ Duke boys — might as well have been struck from a mold for this position: young, semi-competent, desperate to be “in the game” in some fashion, and pliable. An easily guided novice, in other words, one who has actively aspired to this role since adolescence.

I’m going to level with you and say that I don’t think the Democratic Party’s fortunes in 2026 depend one iota on what David Hogg does or does not do. He is a figurehead, a prow sculpture carved out of balsa wood helming a leaky, lashed-together Democratic boat. Jim’s piece mentioned above spent most of its time on that aspect of things — the process that led to the selection of Ken Martin as head of the DNC was a embarrassingly public revelation of a party in disarray — and I would add only that it might not even matter. There are far better reasons than the presence of some semi-anonymous functionaries within the DNC to suspect that Democrats will have a solid 2026, including historical patterns and the potential for Trump’s sweeping policy changes to backfire.

I still believe that this was what the DNC thought it was getting at the time. The grandees, faced with the reality of populist and activist discontent within their youth base, calculated that Hogg would bring the party greater legitimacy with the progressive activist class while also, in his youth and inexperience, functioning internally as “controlled opposition” (unwitting or not) in this internal debate.

But I was certainly wrong about Hogg’s aims. For it seems that David Hogg, flush with the activist zeal of youth, does not intend to play ball at all: He’s going to leverage the prestige of his official position within the Democratic Party power structure to support primary runs against Democratic incumbents in the upcoming elections.

The warnings were present almost from the start. In late February he was caught exploiting the newfound perquisites of his position, using the Democratic National Committee’s vast contact list to fundraise for his own Leaders We Deserve PAC. This was dismissed by Hogg’s defenders as being within the bounds of legality, however seemingly sleazy. We learned yesterday that this very same PAC will now be Hogg’s way of fundraising for and supporting primary challengers against “ineffective, asleep-at-the-wheel” Democrats:

In an interview, Mr. Hogg said he understood that he would face blowback for his decision to serve simultaneously as a top official in the party — which is typically focused on electing Democrats over Republicans — and as a leader of an effort to oust current Democratic lawmakers.

“This is going to anger a lot of people,” Mr. Hogg said of his efforts, which he began to brief allies, some lawmakers and party officials on in recent days. He predicted “a smear campaign against me” that would aim to “destroy my reputation and try to force me to stop doing this.”

“People say they want change in the Democratic Party, but really they want change so long as it doesn’t potentially endanger their position of power,” he said. “That’s not actually wanting change. That’s selfishness.”

If nothing else, you have to hand it to Hogg for actually retaining the courage of his convictions. His anti-gun activism constantly and mindlessly emphasized the importance of youth-driven change come hell or high water, and by gum now that he’s won real power he’s heading straight into the storm. My political knowledge is by no means encyclopedic, but I’ll admit that I’ve never before seen an ostensibly neutral party official actively fundraising to undermine the incumbent candidates he’s supposed to get reelected. (Not even disfavored Republican squishes during the Tea Party or MAGA eras like Liz Cheney had to deal with national committee officials using their position to topple them by directing money to a personally controlled PAC.)

When the original “Squad” members gained their seats in 2020–22 — most of them by toppling just the sort of “asleep-at-the-wheel,” safe-seat incumbents that Hogg presumably is thinking of when he uses the phrase — they did so organically, during a retrospective era of peak woke: at the time, the Democratic primary electorate was uniquely (and fatally) susceptible to the transient fashions and demands of maximally progressive politics. The fact that, by 2024, people like Jamaal Bowman and Cori Bush were no longer in Congress (and Donald Trump became president) suggests the limitations of the approach. But Hogg is a progressive true believer formed during the crucible of that era — and a Harvard man, no less. His instinct is for “permanent revolution,” the need to purge the old and replace it with the new.

It’s always fun as a Republican to see Democrats facing a massive internal crisis of identity and confidence — believe me, we well know the feeling over here. More importantly, as a conservative and lover of stories about “Dems in disarray,” I agree that the current state of the Democrats absolutely requires a futile and stupid gesture on somebody’s part. Why shouldn’t David Hogg be the one who sets progressives to cannibalizing their own party’s establishment incumbents while parasitically milking the legitimacy his official party position affords him? Fossilized Democratic strategist James Carville reacted to Hogg’s blatant disloyalty by calling him a “contemptible little twerp” and arguing that the DNC should sue him. Once again, I agree heartily with Carville: Please, more lawsuits — may there be lawsuits all around, gentlemen!

I’ve long wondered when the Democrats themselves would be institutionally subverted by their own sort of Tea Party/burn-it-down ultra-progressive wing, the way the Republican Party was seized by MAGA ideology. That moment has not quite come; but the shape the confrontation will take within the Democratic Party is beginning to become clearer with the actions of people like Hogg. The anticipation of 2026 as a year of immense electoral backlash against Donald Trump — whether it pans out or not — has raised the stakes uniquely for activist types striving to purge the Democratic Party of its squishes. Expect the rest of the party to move swiftly to suppress Hogg’s efforts to play a cynical inside-outside game with the official party. If it does not, expect the carnage to be glorious, and gloriously self-inflicted.