Parkland survivor and activist David Hogg addresses the crowd at the second March for Our Lives rally in support of gun control on Saturday, June 11, 2022 in Washington. The rally is a follow-up to the 2018 march organized by student protesters following the 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.
Parkland shooting survivor David Hogg teams up with the campaign manager for the youngest-ever member of Congress to create a new group that aims to get young people elected to the legislature and Congress.
The new group, Leaders We Deserve, will support under-30s running for state legislatures and under-35s running for the House of Representatives. Hogg, known for his activism with the gun safety group March for Our Lives, leads the group along with Kevin Lata, Rep.’s campaign manager. Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.), the first member of Gen Z elected to Congress.
“We need to elect more young, fearless progressives to Congress, and especially our state legislatures,” Hogg, 23, says in a video announcing the group. “So often in our country’s history, young people have led the vanguard of change. Join us as we build on that legacy and reshape the balance of power.”
“What we’re trying to do here is essentially be an EMILY’s List for young people,” Hogg told HuffPost in an interview, referring to the group that supports women who support abortion rights who often play queenmaker roles in Democratic primaries. “We want to get in in the early days of a campaign and help them get started.”
Leaders We Deserve will have a regular PAC to help candidates directly and a super PAC to support candidates with advertisements without coordinating directly with them. The group plans to focus primarily on the state legislatures in states seemingly moving from red to blue, including Georgia, Arizona and Texas. It will also support a handful of congressional candidates in deep blue districts like the one where Frost was victorious.
Frost serves on the group’s advisory board alongside representatives Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), Lauren Underwood (D-Ill.), Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.), Rob Menendez (DN.J.), Jan Schakowsky ( D-Ill.) and Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) Two high-profile state legislators – Delaware State Sen. Sarah McBride, who is a hot favorite to win that state’s congressional seat, and Tennesse State Rep. Justin Jones, who recently reclaimed his seat in the state legislature after state Republicans removed him from the legislature following a gun control protest earlier this year.
Hogg and Lata have gone to great lengths to emphasize that the group is not out to oust incumbent Democrats and is not inherently opposed to older people staying in office. While Millennials and Generation Z will make up 48% of the potential electorate by 2024, only 32 of the 535 members of Congress are under the age of 40.
“This isn’t about being against older people in any way,” Hogg said. “This is about creating a cross-generational coalition.”
He noted that the Baby Boomer generation was inspired by their upbringing to enact the earliest environmental protection laws and gun control treaties in a manner similar to how millennials and Gen Zers are inspired to act on climate and gun control.
“When older generations did nuclear bomb exercises, they then passed the largest arms reduction treaties in history,” Hogg said. “I don’t think it’s any different from what young people go through with school shooting practice. I think we need people in the office who understand the fear of not knowing if you’re going to survive math class.”
