A PAC run by left-wing activist David Hogg has only successfully backed one candidate after pledging to spend $20 million to support a new generation of political leaders.
Hogg’s political group, Leaders We Deserve, spent $455,000 helping three Democratic candidates during the first eight months of the year, new figures reported by Axios reveal.
Highlights
- David Hogg's PAC, Leaders We Deserve, pledged $20M but only successfully backed one candidate, Zohran Mamdani, in the NYC mayoral primary.
- Leaders We Deserve spent $2.5M on political consultants despite Hogg's past criticism of consultant reliance.
- The PAC spent nearly $5,000 on fitness classes for employees.
- Two other candidates backed by the PAC, Deja Foxx and Irene Shin, lost their primaries.
Hogg, 25, was elected as a vice chair of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) earlier this year but resigned amid internal disagreements.
Zohran Mamdani is the only winning candidate that Leaders We Deserve backed
Image credits: Eugene Gologursky/Getty Images for Fast Company
Of the three candidates his PAC backed, only Zohran Mamdani – who won New York City's mayoral primary to become the Democratic candidate – was successful.
Hogg’s group donated $300,000 to the Working Families Party PAC to help Mamdani in the final stages of his successful campaign.
Deja Foxx, a political influencer who received a $150,000 donation from the group, lost Arizona’s Democratic primary in July to a candidate backed by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Sen Bernie Sanders.
The third candidate, Irene Shin, lost her primary for Congress in Virginia in June by 45 points after a $5,000 donation from Leaders We Deserve.
The donation figures were reported in a campaign finance report, which also revealed a large sum of money had been spent on political consultants.
Image credits: Stephanie Keith/Getty Images
Hogg has been critical of political consultants in the past, accusing Democrats of being over-reliant on them instead of listening to everyday Americans.
But Leaders We Deserve spent most of its money on those consultants.
About $2.5 million was spent on political consultants, Axios reported, while $1.1 million was spent on digital ads.
A further $965,000 was spent on purchasing potential supporter lists to boost grassroots fundraising, as well as hiring various communications and fundraising consultants.
The PAC also spent close to $5,000 on fitness, forking out a total of $4,900 on the fitness subscription service ClassPass.
By the end of August, the group had a total of $1.6 million left in finances.
Supporters of the PAC have also expressed frustration at the group for not backing any candidates challenging an incumbent.
A national Democratic strategist told Axios: "It's time to sh*t or get off the pot. You stood up to the DNC, now it's time to stand up to some incumbents.”
Image credits: Eugene Gologursky/Getty Images for Fast Company
Kevin Lata, co-founder and executive director of Leaders We Deserve, told Axios that "our projections show that every $1 we put into these investments will net $3-$5 by the end of the cycle .... This helps to make sure every donation goes farther than it otherwise would."
Regarding the ClassPass subscription, he said: "We provide a wellness benefit to our employees, like many employers across the country."
Lata also confirmed that the group will be announcing more endorsements soon.
It comes after internal turmoil inside the DNC earlier this year, related to Hogg’s pledge to back challengers running against established House Democrats in securely blue districts.
Hogg and his PAC co-founder Lata said they would donate $20 million to support upcoming young Democrats.
But the pledge sparked fierce backlash within the DNC, with its chair and others arguing that Hogg DNC officers must remain impartial during primaries to avoid undermining the party’s credibility.
Hogg resigned from his position in June.