Gun Control Advocate David Hogg ’23 Elected DNC Vice Chair

March for Our Lives co-founder David M. Hogg ’23 was elected vice chair of the Democratic National Committee on Saturday after campaigning to win back young voters who drifted to the Republican party in November.

Hogg, 24, will serve as a major party figurehead alongside three other vice chairs and newly elected party chair Ken Martin — a former Minnesota state party leader and former Harris-Walz campaign official. He is the youngest person, and the first member of Generation Z, to hold the position.

“We need to build a Democratic Party that is authentic, relatable, earns people’s trust, and wins again — and that stops apologizing for being who we are,” Hogg wrote on X after the Saturday election.

After announcing his campaign in December, Hogg received endorsements from Governor Tim Walz and Rep. Eric Swalwell, who argued Hogg could speak to young people in a way the party badly needs.

“From taking on the gun lobby to mobilizing millions of young people nationwide, he knows how to build movements that win,” Swalwell wrote in a statement on X.

Hogg founded March for Our Lives after he survived a deadly school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fl. in 2018. Since then, he has been a public advocate for gun control and voter participation.

A History concentrator in Cabot House, Hogg graduated from Harvard in 2023 and co-founded “Leaders We Deserve,” an political action committee that helps young progressives get elected to Congress and state legislatures, that same year.

Following the election, Hogg wrote on X that the Democratic party needs to take an aggressive approach in combating the policies of President Trump and the Republican party.

“It’s time we stop surrendering, go on offense, and take the fight to Donald Trump and every single Republican who is gutting our rights, attacking workers, and rigging the system for the wealthy and well-connected,” Hogg wrote.

“We need to show them who we are again, to rid our party of its judgmental attitudes, and do the work to win back every group we lost this year, from the working class to young people,” he added.

—Staff writer Samuel A. Church can be reached at samuel.church@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @samuelachurch.
—Staff writer Cam N. Srivastava can be reached at cam.srivastava@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @camsrivastava.