But I agree with Martin. We do not hold a 250-185 majority in the House. We are down by about 4 seats before a midterm next year in which our chances of retaking the House are, as things now stand, good. Anything that jeopardizes even one seat of that potential majority could return the Speaker's gavel to His Holiness, Mike Johnson, on January 3rd, 2027. Since either Trump or Vance will be in the Oval Office until Jan. 20, 2029, NOTHING we do should hinder our chances of dislodging Johnson from the Speaker's seat. Just because you are armed, that doesn't mean a circular firing squad is a good idea, especially if the other side isn't doing it.

Sounds like David planned to decide who is effective and who is not. I guess now he is the one that has to make a choice.

If the DNC pulled in David Hogg thinking it would help the youth vote, this move is backfire.

If his desire to primary was motivated by anti-gun stance…well, i don’t know.

But I do know that one always needs to ask the question of leaders who hire people they later chase away, why should we trust your judgment on anything?

Again I say, the DNC is hidebound. instead of recognizing energy and enthusiasm of voters they designate mediocre candidates. if the DNC had recognized and honored the enthusiasm of voters in 2015 for Bernie we would not have had trump one or two. I think Hillary is and was a great pol, good for Bill, good for New York and good as the Sec of State but there was very little enthusiasm for her compared with Bernie. if David's org. Leaders we deserve, with it's youth and vigor stand up and say "look here, this is where we can win" Have you not been watching Bernie and AOC and the crowds?
I say more power to them. too long we have listened to DNC people who have backed not the most winnable but those whose "turn" it is........look where it has gotten us.
I say, Go David, speak truth to power...............and for the rest of you............stop listening to Carville and Schumer, bah humbug!!

I know that county and state parties are generally prohibited from getting involved in primary contests and that all of the members of the DNC other than Mr. Hogg have signed a pledge not to get involved in primaries. If Mr. Hogg wants to do this, he should resign from the DNC

Link to tweet

Link to tweet

But we need the full fledged support of our party, not a decision who to fight with in the party, not now. Truth is we lost too many good Democrats thanks to the flood of money in this last election. Sherrod Brown comes to mind, one of our best fighters, swept out nt lies and money.

after the results of the last election and considering their approval rating, SOMETHING HAS TO CHANGE

I don't believe that an incumbent should automatically receive the nomination.
We should be arriving for the best candidate possible. Sometimes that's not always the incumbent.

twice as easy.

In the 2024 House election, 47% of incumbents seeking re-election faced no primary challengers.

Out of the 411 incumbents that sought re-election, 196 of them had no primary challenger.

That number was even higher in previous elections. 60% in 2022 and 53% in 2020.

The Democratic party has had a strong downward trend in contested primaries since 2018. It dropped from 241 contested primaries in 2018 to 137 contested primaries in 2024. Those numbers include primaries for both incumbents and new candidates. (The numbers above were strictly incumbents).

Saying that "candidates do challenge them in every election" is just not accurate.
They could be challenged - there is nothing to stop someone challenging them - but it does not happen in many cases.

https://ballotpedia.org/Annual_Congressional_Competitiveness_Report%2C_2024

they sure do here in California jungle primaries all the time.

This is just for the Green Party

https://www.gp.org/green_party_candidates_in_state_and_local_races_in_2024

But there are also parties such as peace an freedom and three miscellaneous parties.

In 2024 there were 196 incumbents who faced no challenger in the primary election. Roughly 47% of all incumbents.

to stop their campaign & dropout, because they will not get their endorsement, even if the challenging candidate is a better option, that's an automatic nomination.
I see it every election season.

We end up with a representative (Senate, House) that never does anything but collect a paycheck and vote the party line. They never write or introduce a bill, they just become a party vote with no conviction. I see this more in the House than in the Senate.

own arrogance. What a disaster in the making. This negative primary messaging is the last thing our party needs at this time. Tone deaf and unnecessary.

But not now…

This only further proves Hogg is on point.

If the DNC cuts ties with him they can expect no donations from me or other progressives ever again. We will donate to pro democratic organizations that support people like Hogg and progressive primary challengers or directly to the candidates themselves.

In what way?

to use his personal organization to attempt to replace sitting Democrats. I’m not sure of that, though. At least it only involves safe seats.

I also phone banked for them desperately trying to get Harris votes.

I know because I had to say “Thank you for your time. This call was paid for the DNC” after every call.

Want me to post a time stamped receipt from one of my donations made last year?

"this call was paid for by the DNC", of course the call banking I was doing was to get the vote out from Democrats, not to solicit money.

Harris vs Trump.

We never solicited money. Just votes or gave reminders to vote early!

We were told we were required by law to say it so it was important not to forget it.

election, or was it just a list of people we were just registered voters?

I had a list from voters who were registered as Democrats from the previous election.

I had a script, but I didn't have to say that it was funded by the DNC, only that I was a volunteer for the Harris campaign, (or whatever candidate I was calling for at the time), campaign, and if we could count on your vote, or something to that effect.

I guess different phone banking groups are given different scripts.

https://www.fec.gov/help-candidates-and-committees/making-disbursements-political-party/party-phone-banks/

A few of the people I called said they were republicans voting for Trump.

One day, though, we made calls to voice mails and were told these were people who had already been contacted and that we were just leaving voice mails reminding them to go vote (or early vote).

phone banking is a good number of people are irritated because they get so many solicitations from different campaigns to get out the vote, that I wonder to myself if sometimes the phone banking can actually be counter-productive.

Just speaking for myself as a voter, because of all the spam calls out there, I no longer answer calls from numbers I do not recognize. It has led me to wonder how pollsters account for those who don't answer calls, and how significant that number is.

And it was especially hard on me due to my social anxiety disorder.

Every call made me physically ill fear a bad reaction. Luckily the worst I got was hung up on (a lot).

G’night!

it was obvious that there was only ONE SIDE that actually wanted and worked for gun legislation.

I am glad they are getting out ahead of this.

Some of Mr. Hoggs ideas such as "defund the police", is NOT a good slogan:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/dnc-vice-chair-s-posts-calling-to-abolish-ice-and-defund-police/ar-AA1ypfYq?ocid=EMMX

I question why he was even made vice chairman. His only credentials are that he survived a terrible mass shooting.

We need to campaign against republicans, not Democrats, and leave challenges to incumbents up to the people in that state, not to someone who is supposed to NOT TAKE SIDES against Democrats.

If he wants to do that, then I suggest he should run as a candidate.

elected Democrats.

It’s easier to finger point and do the TV circuit.

Outting money into a presumed safe race in the hopes of getting a better candidate is like fertilizing a lawn that is already green to get a stronger green. I’d be more satisfied with the DNC making sure that EVERY race is contested, with money being put into training materials that help get our message across in the ways that our best speakers (like Pete Buttigieg) do.

Not elitists.

He is not being helpful with the primary threats against anyone he doesn’t like. That’s not the role of DNC leadership.

will be upset and touchy and probably busy making new CTs right now about how everybody's out to get them.

Dems just love looking like the party of nothing to see here. Just vote for us because we won before and don’t need to win your support ever again.

Way to activate those voters who are looking for Dems to represent their ideals, Ken!

Why wouldn’t we want reps who actually do the work they were elected to do! How many of us wish Ginsburg, as much as we loved her, had stepped down. Look at what AOC is doing. What could we do if we had 5 more of her?

They can't help but put their thumbs on the scale when it comes to actual progressives running for office. So maybe the best thing for Hogg is to challenge them from the outside. You are not changing the staid, boring, corporate-donation driven organization (and thus not progressive at all) from the inside. What needs to change is a party driven BY THE PEOPLE and not by lobbyists and donors.

Otherwise, provide proof of these accusations. This is a forum for supporters of the Democratic Party.

deciding which reps he thinks are worthy and which are not.

It would be great if the DNC, and Hogg, used their energy and influence on messaging and on coordinating our actions to make us a more effective voice of opposition to this disaster.

When the balance of power is so close, and when the stakes are so high... why would anyone want to do ANYTHING to jeopardize incumbent Democrats??

The smart thing would be to go after vulnerable Republicans. The smart thing would be to target and weaken Republicans so that they can be more easily defeated by a Democratic challenger. The smart thing would be to spend the money on Democratic candidates vying for OPEN seats.

Sadly, I think that pride and anger and other emotions cause rookie politicians and activists to make mistakes that end up hurting our party more than helping it. Culling incumbent Democrats in the name of purity does nothing to knock the GOP out of power. Isn't that the main objective here?

Well, it should be. That would be the smart thing to do.

This is why EXPERIENCE MATTERS! We need people in the DNC who understand the importance on focusing on a winning strategy that prioritizes defeating our opponents and advancing our party's goals.

It sounds like the DNC is preventing the waste of money and time on unnecessary sparring matches they need for bigger bouts

Like mine. In my district there was NO Democratic candidate for House of Representatives in 2024 election. We have the awful Mary Miller. No Dem opponent!!!!!

I am glad that Ken Martin is doing the right thing. Members of the DNC and each state and local party cannot be taking sides in primary fights. Hogg wants to primary democrats he dislikes. That is NOT what a member of the party leadership should be doing.

DNC leadership is planning to expand its non-endorsement policy to all elections. Members will hear from the chair, Ken Martin, on Thursday afternoon, as many remain furious with vice chair David Hogg’s plan to support primary challenges.

Link to tweet