Self-styled anti-gun political activist David Hogg has announced plans to “use his advocacy” to help get younger far-left “progressive” candidates elected to public office, calling his movement “Leaders We Deserve.”
The question may be how long it takes before it morphs into “Leaders We’re Stuck With.”
Hogg helped launch an anti-gun youth movement five years ago following the Parkland, Florida high school shooting that left 17 students and adults dead. It was called “March for Our Lives,” and he became something of a media darling, quickly settling into his sudden celebrity status. In the years since he’s been showing up to push an extremist gun control agenda, and now it appears he hopes to load legislatures with like-minded twenty-somethings who will focus on causes popular with liberals, specifically mentioning abortion and gun control.
Hogg announced the effort on Twitter and lamented to CBS News that legislatures around the country are ratcheting down on abortions while “weakening gun laws.” He has teamed up with Kevin Lata, former campaign manager for Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-FL), described as “the first Gen Z member of Congress” by CBS.
Announcing Leaders We Deserve- a grassroots political organization determined to elect more people like @RepMaxwellFrost to congress and state legislatures. We do this by recruiting young people from the movements of today and getting them to run for office. pic.twitter.com/hlWeXzKJ48
— David Hogg 🟧 (@davidhogg111) August 9, 2023
The Washington Post said the Hogg-Lata team hopes to raise money to help “elect progressive candidates who they say could help fight a far-right agenda.” Clearly revealing their political preferences, Hogg and Lata told the WaPo they will not be supporting candidates who challenge Democrat incumbents, instead working to fill vacancies in blue districts with “progressive” candidates with an eye on eventually flipping red states to blue. So, only young would-be political leaders who lean liberal will get support. Conservatives evidently aren’t welcome.
Hogg told CBS, “There’s so many charismatic, brilliant young people that have come from March For Our Lives and have now started running for office…and there’s so many more that I think can come. That’s why I’m doing this, it’s to help build that pathway.”
Apparently, Hogg is not planning to personally run for office, only to work on getting other people to run. According to NPR, Hogg said he and Lata are “looking for candidates that represent our generation, not just demographically, but also ideologically.”
But what sort of life experience do any of these “charismatic, brilliant young people” bring to the table beyond a shared ideology?
Lata told NBC News, “A big part of this … is electing young people that have the values of our generation, that understand the anxiety of not knowing if you’re going to be able to survive math class.”
Perhaps the “values” Hogg and Lata are looking for are anxiety and paranoia about guns.
What is explained by the WaPo story is Hogg’s desire to gradually shift power in several states by helping elect “progressives” so that, in the next decade or a little longer, “these states would be Democratic-controlled.” Translation: Anti-gunners will be in charge and their agenda is to erode the Second Amendment. Two states apparently in the crosshairs are Florida and Texas.
NBC News also revealed the names of some of their advisors, described as “a diverse group of young, progressive elected officials including Reps. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., Lauren Underwood, D-Ill., Frost and Tennessee state Rep. Justin Jones, who was briefly expelled from the legislature for leading a protest in favor of gun control onto the state House floor earlier this year.” Here’s a full list:
Announcing Our Advisory Board for Leaders We Deserve!!@ChrisMurphyCT @MaxwellFrostFL @LaurenUnderwood @jamie_raskin @ericswalwell @janschakowsky @MorganMcGarvey @BeckyPringle @rweingarten @brotherjones_ @abreezeclayton @cristinanextgen @Alyssa_Milano @SarahEMcBride…
— David Hogg
(@davidhogg111) August 10, 2023
It does not require much imagination to understand where this movement will be headed. Also, it should be noted how NBC describes Hogg: a “gun safety advocate.” At least other news reports have more accurately described him as a “gun control activist.”
By helping elect these “young progressives” now, they hope—as NBC’s story observed—it will “ensure those same people remain in office and run for higher office in the decades to come.” They may have a new movement, but at its core is the same old political strategy which has given the country the likes of Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi, Dianne Feinstein and Bernie Sanders; career politicians who have made a living trying to tell everyone else how to live.
They are also asking supporters to donate at least $10 a month to help build a political warchest. Hogg’s “new” political movement has the same old core requirement: Money. Hogg may be selling his “Leaders We Deserve” as the future of politics, but right out of the gate, the fuel which will drive his movement isn’t just ideology, it is also cash, and that’s what has been guiding politics for generations.
Hogg and Lata are just putting a new label on it.
About Dave Workman
Dave Workman is a senior editor at TheGunMag.com and Liberty Park Press, author of multiple books on the Right to Keep & Bear Arms, and formerly an NRA-certified firearms instructor.
