Gun control activist/failed pillow maker/former DNC vice-chair/political grifter David Hogg is somehow still a thing in Democratic political circles, though that may be changing. According to a new report by Axios, Hogg’s Leaders We Deserve PAC, which is supposedly all about promoting younger candidates ready to challenge aging Democrat incumbents, hasn’t endorsed any challengers in the 2026 election cycle, which is well underway.
Axios also notes that Hogg hasn’t been all that successful in the few campaigns where his group has backed a candidate, going 1-for-3 this year.
Hogg’s group scored a big victory in June when it donated $300,000 to the Working Families Party PAC to help Zohran Mamdani in the final stretch of his successful campaign in New York City’s mayoral primary.
Since then, however, Hogg’s PAC has struggled to pick winning candidates and has frustrated even its own supporters by not endorsing anyone challenging an incumbent.
The group donated $150,000 to 25-year-old progressive influencer Deja Foxx, even though her opponent in an Arizona congressional primary was backed by progressives such as Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.). Foxx lost by nearly 40 points with just 22% of the vote.
Leaders We Deserve also invested $5,000 in Irene Shin’s campaign for Congress in Virginia this summer, and planned to invest more before abruptly retreating from the race. Shin her primary by 45 points.
Hogg’s support for Mamdani wasn’t exactly a bold choice. Leaders We Deserve waited until the final days of the mayoral primary before making its donation to the Working Families Party PAC. By then it was clear that Mamdani was the choice of progressives, though polls still showed him trailing former governor Andrew Cuomo. If Hogg’s group was going to play any kind of role in the primary, Mamdani was the most logical choice; a 33-year-old socialist who back in 2022 called for a ban on private gun ownership fits better with Leaders We Deserve’s stated mission than a 67-year-old career politician, even if Cuomo has an extensive history of supporting restrictions on our Second Amendment rights.
So if Leaders We Deserve isn’t spending a lot of cash on candidates, where is its money going?
Hogg has accused Democrats of being overly reliant on political consultants, but his group is spending most of its money on such companies, according to campaign finance reports.
- Over the first eight months of this year, Leaders We Deserve spent $4.9 million with about $2.5 million going to consultants and $455,000 on helping three candidates.
- The group spent $1.1 million on digital ads and $965,000 on acquiring lists of potential supporters to help grassroots fundraising along with a variety of communications and fundraising consultants.
- It also spent about $4,900 on ClassPass, the fitness class subscription service.
- The group had $1.6 million in the bank at the end of August.
Hogg’s also paying himself more than $10,000 a month from the funds Leaders We Deserve is raising, which is a pretty nice paycheck. And for some inexplicable reason people keep donating to the failed pillow maker, much to the chagrin of other Democratic operatives.
But even progressives who support Hogg’s plan are growing impatient: “It’s time to sh*t or get off the pot. You stood up to the DNC, now it’s time to stand up to some incumbents,” a national Democratic strategist told Axios.
One campaign consultant did tell Axios that it cost Leaders We Deserve “a lot more money in July and August to raise what they raised in June,” so maybe Democratic donors are finally growing weary of the political grift. There are plenty of suckers out there, though, and my guess is that Hogg’s PAC will still have a substantial amount of money to spend on progressive candidates next year… though given his track record that cash likely won’t make much of a difference.
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