After months of intra-party wrangling and controversy, David Hogg and Pennsylvania state Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta are officially out as vice chairs of the Democratic National Committee, for the moment at least, following a ruling that their election was conducted improperly. With the decision to run new elections, Hogg has decided to drop out of the race, ending his controversial tenure within Democratic leadership and guaranteeing that Kenyatta will be reelected to the vice chair position.
David Hogg drops out of new race after months of controversy
On Wednesday, members of the DNC voted to void and redo the February elections that chose Hogg and Kenyatta as the last two vice chairs of the committee, ruling that the process had been flawed. After the decision, Hogg announced that he would not run in the new election to regain the vice chair seat, for which he would have been eligible. Since being elected in February, Hogg had clashed with Democratic Party leadership over his pledge to use his political organization, Leaders We Deserve, to support primary challenges of incumbent Democrats. Although the objection to his election was raised prior to these disputes, the controversy over Hogg hung over the debate about whether to remove him.
David Hogg defends primary strategy; Kenyatta pledges to ‘get back to work’
Hogg mainly talked about his political strategy in a series of social media posts explaining his decision not to run for DNC vice chair again. He defended his actions as a response to “a serious lack of vision from Democratic leaders, too many of them asleep at the wheel, and Democrats dying in office that have helped to hand Republicans an expanded majority.”
Hogg’s decision leaves Kenyatta running unopposed and thus guaranteed to win one of the vice chair seats. Kenyatta had expressed frustration that he had been caught up in the drama surrounding Hogg and the question about the February election, which he had handily won. Kenyatta posted a statement on X, formerly Twitter, concerning Hogg’s decision not to run, which he summarized with the caption, “Let’s get back to work. I wish David the best.”
Gender rules and election fairness behind the new vote
Neither Hogg nor Kenyatta was accused of any wrongdoing in their election to the vice chair positions. Instead, as Blavity reported, the process itself was ruled to have been flawed on procedural grounds. Specifically, because of gender balance rules within the DNC, at least one of the two open spots decided in February’s election had to be filled by a man. By holding one vote for both spots instead of separate elections for each position, the vote gave an advantage to Hogg and Kenyatta, as DNC members knew that at least one of them needed to be elected to satisfy the gender rule. Now, the committee has decided to run a separate election for each open vice chair slot. As the only man still in the race, Kenyatta will be the only candidate for the male vice chair role, to be held June 12 to 14, and is guaranteed the spot. The other race, open to candidates of any gender, will be held June 15 to 17. The three remaining candidates for that election are Oklahoma Democratic Committeewoman Kalyn Free, whose initial complaint led to the current outcome, Washington Democratic Party Chair Shasti Conrad and Kansas Democratic Party Chair Jeanna Repass.
One of these women and Kenyatta will serve as vice chairs of the DNC. Meanwhile, Hogg has pledged to continue to work with Leaders We Deserve to challenge Republicans and sitting Democrats across the country. While the leadership question within the DNC is being resolved, the larger fight for the direction of the Democratic Party is set to continue.
