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The Democrats’ 2024 Implosion: A Party Eating Itself
By Mike Connors. 26th April 2025
The Democratic Party is a house on fire, and its leaders are arguing over who gets to hold the matches. After a crushing 2024 election loss—Kamala Harris trounced by Donald Trump, the Senate and House slipping away—the party’s
base is crumbling, with only 27% of registered voters viewing it favorably, per a March 2025 NBC News poll. Instead of rallying, the Democrats are doubling down on chaos, and their new DNC officers, elected February 1, 2025, are fanning the flames.
Ken Martin, the new DNC chair, boasts an undefeated record in Minnesota, but his national challenge is herding a fractured party facing Trump’s second term. Vice Chair Reyna Walters-Morgan, a voting rights advocate, and Vice Chairs Artie Blanco, Malcolm Kenyatta, and David Hogg round out the leadership. Kenyatta, a rising star from Philadelphia, wants to fight Trump without “apologizing for being a Democrat.” But it’s Hogg, the 25-year-old Parkland survivor, who’s lighting the biggest fuse.
In an April 2025 interview with Jake Tapper, Hogg revealed his group, Leaders We Deserve, plans to spend $20 million to primary “ineffective, asleep-at-the-wheel” House Democrats in safe blue seats. This isn’t about flipping red districts—it’s about ousting fellow Democrats. Veteran strategist James Carville called it “the most insane thing I ever heard,” arguing the party should focus on Republicans. Hogg fired back, saying Carville “hasn’t won an election since before I was born” and believes in a “politics of being timid, of hiding. I believe in fighting.” When Tapper asked, “When were you born?” Hogg replied, “2000.” Tapper quipped, “I can hear James Carville’s head exploding all the way from New Orleans when you called him timid.”
Hogg’s plan is unprecedented for a DNC vice chair, a role traditionally ceremonial and neutral. He didn’t sign the DNC’s neutrality policy, and his push to back younger challengers against entrenched incumbents has sparked a civil war. Centrists fear his far-left rhetoric—past calls to abolish ICE and defund police—could tank the party’s brand in swing districts. Progressives cheer his generational shake-up, citing the party’s 29% approval rating as proof of a “crisis.”
But here’s the rub: while Hogg’s chasing “effective” Democrats, the party’s bleeding voters—young men, working-class folks, communities of color—who feel ignored. I’ve seen politics from the ground up, working in construction during the ‘70s recession, and it’s always the same: politicians bicker while regular people scrape by. Hogg’s $20 million might energize TikTok activists, but will it rebuild trust with the 73% who’ve written off the Democrats? Carville’s got a point—why burn cash fighting your own when Trump’s reshaping the government?
The Democrats need a reset, not a purge. Martin’s talk of a “50 State Strategy” sounds promising, but only if it drowns out the infighting. Hogg’s passion is real, but his gamble risks alienating more than it inspires. If the party keeps eating itself, 2026 will be another bloodbath. Time to put out the fire and start building something voters can believe in.
You can follow Mike Connors on X @OmniNewsJournal
