David Hogg takes his war on Dem establishment to California

SACRAMENTO, California — David Hogg is turning California into the front line of his war on the Democratic Party establishment.

Hogg, the former Democratic National Committee vice chair who roiled the DNC last year with his pledge to take down “ineffective, asleep-at-the-wheel” Democrats, has steered some $2.6 million into primaries across the country this cycle through his group Leaders We Deserve. About a third of that has come in California, where the 26-year-old activist is spending heavily to boost insurgent candidates in some of the party’s most consequential House races. And once again, it is putting Hogg on a collision course with Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and other party power centers.

In the run-up to Tuesday’s primary, Leaders We Deserve has poured hundreds of thousands of dollars into supporting progressive challengers taking on vulnerable Reps. David Valadao and Kevin Kiley. His organization is backing 81-year-old Democratic Rep. Doris Matsui’s first serious challenger in a generation.

It’s a test of whether younger, more progressive candidates can win in the California districts Democrats now need after the Supreme Court’s Voting Rights Act ruling unleashed a new round of red-state redistricting. The question is most immediate in Valadao’s Central Valley seat, still widely considered a toss-up despite the gerrymander. Party leaders are betting on more conventional candidates, but Hogg argues that approach has already failed.


https://www.politico.com/news/2026/06/01/david-hogg-takes-his-war-on-dem-establishment-to-california-00944712