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The Democratic National Committee (DNC) has taken steps towards removing gun control activist and Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting survivor David Hogg as vice chairman.
On Monday, the credentials committee of the DNC voted 13-2 to void the election results from February in which Hogg and Pennsylvania state Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta (D) were elected to serve as co-vice chairmen of the DNC, according to the New York Times. The vote comes as Hogg is reportedly planning to “spend up to $20 million” to fund “primary campaigns against incumbent Democrats.”
Per the outlet, the decision from the credentials committee came after “three hours of internal debate and one tie vote,” and will move the decision to oust Hogg and Kenyatta as vice chairmen of the DNC before the “full body”:
The decision — which came after roughly three hours of internal debate and one tie vote — will put the issue before the full body of the Democratic National Committee. It must decide whether to force Mr. Hogg and a second vice chair, Malcolm Kenyatta, to run again in another election later this year.
Mr. Hogg, 25, an outspoken survivor of the 2018 school shooting in Parkland, Fla., has prompted a fierce backlash over his plans to spend up to $20 million through another organization he heads, Leaders We Deserve, on primary campaigns against incumbent Democrats. Ken Martin, the party chairman, has said it is inappropriate for Mr. Hogg to intervene in primaries while serving as a party official, and has recommended changing the party’s bylaws to force him to sign a neutrality pledge.
Hogg issued a statement acknowledging that the DNC had taken “its first steps” to remove him from his position, noting that it was “impossible to ignore the broader context” of his work to “reform the party,” which played into the vote.
“Today, the DNC took its first steps to remove me from my position as Vice Chair At-Large,” Hogg said in his statement. “While this vote was based on how the DNC conducted its officers’ elections, which I had nothing to do with, it is also impossible to ignore the broader context of my work to reform the party which loomed large over this vote.”
The decision from the DNC’s credentials committee comes in response to a complaint issued by Kalyn Free, who was one of the candidates running to be vice chair of the DNC, according to the outlet.
Per the outlet, Hogg’s “intention to engage in primaries was not the subject of the discussion”:
Mr. Hogg’s intention to engage in primaries was not the subject of the discussion on Monday, which turned on arcane parliamentary procedures and the decision of party officials to combine votes for the last two vice chair slots into a single vote.
“This is about fairness and making sure that three women and the voting members of the D.N.C. are not disenfranchised,” Free said in a statement.
“Our country is in crisis, and too many leaders in the Democratic Party are asleep at the wheel,” Hogg continued in his statement. “Trump is on a mission to crash our economy, disappear people without due process, and participate in flagrant public corruption – and voters still trust him more than Democrats. That is a massive indictment of our party.”
On Saturday, DNC Chairman Ken Martin issued a statement calling for Hogg to either remain neutral in politics or step down from his position as co-vice chairman of the DNC, Politico reported.
“Party officers have one job: to be fair stewards of a process that invites every Democrat to the table — regardless of personal views or allegiances,” Martin said in a statement.
“I just want to be one of the several of those voices to help represent young people and also, more than anything, make sure that we’re standing up to the consulting class that increasingly the Democratic Party is representing instead of the working class,” Hogg said in a statement to ABC News.
