David Hogg ‘considering getting involved’ in the race to succeed Dwight Evans in Congress
The Parkland High School shooting survivor said he is eying the 3rd Congressional District as part of his effort to fund new candidates through his group Leaders We Deserve.
David Hogg, the outspoken high school shooting survivor who recently made waves in the Democratic National Committee, suggested he is interested in recruiting a candidate to run in the race to replace U.S. Rep. Dwight Evans in Philadelphia.
Hogg said in an interview with The Inquirer that he is “looking” at the 3rd Congressional District, which will be open in 2026 for the first time in more than a decade because Evans, a Democrat, is retiring at the end of his term.
“If there’s any great young people or potential young people that could run there, that is a district that we’re considering getting involved in, supporting a phenomenal young person there,” Hogg, 25, said Wednesday evening before an event in Lansdale.
Hogg, a gun safety advocate who survived the 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., frustrated establishment Democrats during his recent stint as DNC vice chair by announcing that his group, Leaders We Deserve, would spend $20 million in safely blue districts to challenge incumbents who are “asleep at the wheel.”
Hogg stepped down from his position in June as the committee was preparing to hold a new election for the position.
The field for the 3rd District is already getting crowded with elected officials from Philadelphia, foreshadowing a competitive primary for the most Democratic-leaning seat in the state.
State Rep. Morgan Cephas, 41, who chairs the Philadelphia delegation, announced plans to run for the seat earlier this month.
State Sen. Sharif Street, 51, who recently stepped down as state party chair to run his campaign, and State Rep. Chris Rabb, 55, an anti-establishment progressive, launched their campaigns in July.
Hogg’s PAC aims to elect young progressives to state legislatures and Congress, and he believes that primarying Democrats and electing younger leaders will help rebuild a stronger party.
The group’s website notes: “Through all of this, some incumbents will rise to the challenge and emerge stronger. Others will demonstrate why they should be replaced. Either way, we all win.”
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Hogg told a crowd of progressives Wednesday in Montgomery County that he once thought he wanted to run for Congress at age 25, but added, “and then I met some members of Congress.”
In reality, he said, he realized that if he ran, he “would raise Republicans 20 times more than I could ever raise for our party because I’m such a lightning rod and I scare them so much.”
Instead of raising millions for himself to have one vote, he decided to raise millions to support “20 to 30 to 50 great young people,” he said.
Hogg’s group has endorsed New York Assembly member Zohran Mamdani, 33, a democratic socialist and the Democratic Party nominee for New York City mayor, as well as three congressional candidates: Deja Foxx, a 25-year-old activist running for Congress in Arizona; Robert Peters, 40, a state senator running for Congress in Illinois; and Irene Shin, 37, a state delegate running for Congress in Virginia.
He said he also wants to get involved with state legislative races in Pennsylvania.
“Regardless of how liberal or to the left you are, I think we all agree that a different strategy is needed and some new voices are needed in our party, and that’s part of what we’re trying to bring,” he said.
Last year, Leaders We Deserve supported Anna Thomas, 29, who lost a Lehigh Valley state House race by just over 3 percentage points in a tough year for Democrats in Pennsylvania.
Hogg said the pushback he received from the party for wanting to challenge incumbents showed him that winning back young people they have lost touch with is not a priority.
“They want young sycophants that don’t actually represent young people,” he said.
Hogg said there are “great” older representatives who should stay in office and “terrible” young ones who should be voted out. But overall, he said, young people need to be given the opportunity to represent the party’s future.
“If we’re not going to be given a seat at the table, we’re pulling up a … chair,” he added.