Editorial: National Dems need a reboot

No wonder national Democrats remain deep in the wilderness. After a party election in February that saw two young men – David Hogg and Malcolm Kenyatta, a gay Black Pennsylvania state lawmaker – elected to vice chair posts, the Democratic National Committee has taken steps to void those elections. In Hogg’s case, it’s because he has unveiled a $20 million effort through the independent Leaders We Deserve group he co-founded to invest in a new generation of Democratic leaders in next year’s midterm elections. That includes funding challenges to some entrenched Democratic incumbents. The old guard of the party doesn’t like that, and it has caused friction. Hogg plans to focus on safe Democratic House seats, he has previously said, in an effort to inject new life into the House of Representatives. Congressmember and former House speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) is not a target, as the San Francisco Chronicle reported. And Hogg is not eyeing potential challengers based solely on the age of current lawmakers.

Kenyatta, who received more votes than Hogg, is frustrated, according to reports, that he is also being targeted for ouster. A DNC subcommittee this week recommended that the organization invalidate one of its February vice chair votes over claims that it unfairly disadvantaged female candidates. News reports have indicated that if the entire DNC votes to redo the vice chair election, Kenyatta’s seat will also be open. Hogg and Kenyatta are the only two DNC officers under the age of 35, which should tell you something.

That the DNC is expending time and energy on this issue is ridiculous. We were thrilled when Hogg, 25, and Kenyatta, 34, were elected as DNC vice chairs. They represent a new generation, to be sure, and, in Kenyatta’s case, a welcome LGBTQ voice near the top of the national party leadership. Hogg, a survivor of the 2018 Parkland school shooting in Florida, was trolled by Congressmember Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Georgia) before she was elected. She followed him around in Washington, D.C. making false and baseless claims related to gun rights, as CNN reported when the videos surfaced in 2021.

Hogg has a point in his election strategy, even as he knew it would generate the inevitable backlash. As Leaders We Deserve wrote in a recent email to supporters, the goal of the $20 million investment is “defeating vulnerable Republicans and flipping their competitive districts blue; challenging ineffective Democrats in safe-seats with young, bold candidates; and running progressive champions for open seats and building a bigger bench.”

Christopher Ahuja is one of those young candidates, who, while not yet backed by Hogg’s group, nevertheless is inspired by him and is running to unseat longtime Congressmember Brad Sherman (D) in Southern California. As our Political Notebook reported this week, Ahuja, a straight ally, ran for the seat two years ago. A common response he heard from the people whose doors he knocked on was that no other candidates had bothered to show up and seek their votes, recalled Ahuja.

One only has to look at the huge crowds that came out to see another young Democrat, Congressmember Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York), and U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) on their recent Fighting Oligarchy tour, to realize that the national Democratic Party is in dire need of a reboot. (We know, Sanders is 83, but he is definitely not ineffective, and, if more Democrats listened to him, they might have a more robust response to all the policy disasters that President Donald Trump is initiating in his efforts to establish an oligarchy.)

A broader bench is exactly what’s needed for the Democrats. Serving in Congress, or any elected office, is not a lifetime appointment (not counting federal and U.S. Supreme Court justices). With the exception of U.S. Senator Cory Booker’s (D-New Jersey) record-breaking floor speech earlier this year, we’d argue that the Democratic response to Trump has been largely cringe-worthy. Letters being sent, placards raised at the address Trump gave, and just the general malaise that many congressional Democrats have is frustrating. We realize the party controls no branch of the federal government, but there are things Democrats can, and should, do. More town halls in red districts, for one thing. Contrary to Trump’s misinformation, farmers in this country are paying dearly due to his on-again, off-again, on-again tariffs. Companies that employ millions of people are set to suffer from the trade war that Trump himself started. Union workers could be in jeopardy if tariffs on China remain in place, resulting in reduced shipping to U.S. ports. These are areas where Democrats need to reach out and promote the party’s proud history of supporting labor and the working class.

Unfortunately, Republicans have been effective at portraying Democrats as “woke.” And, the GOP is attempting, some might say succeeding, at diverting voters’ attention to things like LGBTQ rights. The spineless Democrats don’t know how to respond.

Here’s what they should be saying: Yes, equal rights are important. They help everyone. Yes, LGBTQ people deserve the same rights as everyone else. But instead, they get caught in the trap laid by Republicans, who try to keep the focus on one or two trans athletes and then gleefully watch as Democrats slink off into a corner. That’s what happened to Kamala Harris during her presidential run last year, when she couldn’t, or wouldn’t, respond to the barrage of anti-trans ads run by Republicans.

The Democratic Party can stand for diversity and the working class. It’s not an either-or proposition. The party doesn’t have to scapegoat one to have the other. But that is how many in the party are reacting. And that is a lose-lose formula that will haunt the party going into next year’s midterm elections.