Delete The Tweet

As Vice Chair, David Hogg should repudiate celebrations of Democrats losing

At the most recent DNC meeting, the party held a land acknowledgement to show that party’s commitment to Native Americans.

At the same meeting, they nominated to the role of Vice Chair a white man who wrote the following tweet about a Native woman representative:

“Turns out being weak on gun control doesn’t save you. Peltola was awful on gun control. Good riddance.”

Let’s ignore the fact that Mary Peltola was the single most over-performing incumbent in 2024. The tweet exposes the limits of the Democratic Party’s identity politics: The party is happy to performatively celebrate Native people with “land acknowledgements.” But when a Native woman dares to formulate her own policy views, she is subject to vicious attacks, and the loss of that Native representative is celebrated… by a DNC Vice Chair.

When David Hogg sent this tweet, he was not a DNC Vice Chair. We never criticized David Hogg the gun violence survivor and advocate. And we certainly need more talent and energy in the party, especially in a new generation.

But he is a formal leader in the Democratic Party now. And while he is not the problem in the Democratic Party, he does represent a party not focused on winning. And he comes from a faction of the party that does regularly celebrate losses and seeks to push people out of the party through litmus tests and condescension.

And in his role as Vice Chair, he now literally represents the party. If the party is going to win, it can’t have leaders celebrate losing seats in Congress.

So we ask Hogg in his new role: delete the tweet.

Let’s mourn Democratic losses, learn from overperformers, and celebrate Democratic wins together.