Party vice-chair David Hogg wants to unseat some fellow Democrats by funding primary challengers

Democratic National Committee vice chair David Hogg says he wants to fund primary challenges against Democratic lawmakers who he feels are “asleep at the wheel” and not fighting President Trump hard enough.

“What we're looking for are people who are effective leaders to fight back against Donald Trump,” Hogg, the founder of Leaders We Deserve, said. “And I think good examples of what that looks like are like what our senator from Maryland is doing by going to El Salvador to say we need to do something about the fact that Donald Trump is disappearing people, members of families, for example, and taking them to El Salvador. And what we're trying to do right now is make sure that we rally our base and that we make sure that we have effective Democrats in our solid seats and we want to help win majorities as well in Congress, which is why we're not challenging people in more competitive races.”

What do you mean that Democrats are “asleep at the wheel”?

“I think in particular there’s quite a few examples out there, but to be honest with you, it's a general feeling that many of the people in our party have right now that we are failing to meet this moment. And let me be clear to you, the work that Leaders We Deserve is not just challenging people this cycle that are in safe, solidly Democratic seats. We are not here to risk the House, and we're not here to challenge people just because they're older. There are older people like Nancy Pelosi, Jan Schakowsky and others that are meeting this moment to fight back against this, and there are younger people that also aren't. This is across the board.”

What kind of candidates will you support?

“For one, our candidates, they agree not to take corporate money. We want to make sure that our young people, younger voters in particular, know that there are Democrats out there that are there to represent them, that are not there to represent the special interests that have destroyed so much of the American dream. We've seen a large shift in the electorate of younger people not turning out in the last presidential election and increasingly shifting to the right in part because I believe that we go out there and say over and over again, democracy is so important, democracy is so important, but we fail to effectively use that democracy to actively improve people's lives nearly fast enough.”

 What pushback have you received?

“The work that we do here at Leaders We Deserve, we're funded by small-dollar donors around the country. It's going to cost a lot more, for example, for us to be able to invest to have those small-dollar donors so our candidates don't have to take corporate money. And there's going to be conflicts about where we spend that money and how much we spend it, and people are going to disagree with it. I imagine there will be contortions of that truth, but ultimately we're doing this to help change the Democratic Party.”

This interview was edited for clarity. 

Lynn Menegon produced and edited this interview for broadcast with Catherine Welch. Michael Scotto adapted it for the web with Allison Hagan.