David Hogg on Electing Young Progressive Dems

The Al Franken Podcast

Government, Progressive, Politics, Senate, Liberal, Senator, Minnesota, Franken, News, Saturday Night Live, Comedy, Snl

4.6 • 7.7K Ratings

🗓️ 12 October 2025

⏱️ 49 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

We're thrilled to welcome David Hogg to the podcast. Hogg is a co-founder of March For Our Lives and his PAC, Leaders We Deserve. He shares about how the tragedy in Parkland, FL launched him into the political fray.

Hogg notoriously served as a Vice Chair of the Democratic National Committee for a brief time. He tells us about some of the inner workings of the DNC and then what happened when shit hit the fan. He argues that too many long-serving Democrats in Congress are "asleep at the wheel" and believes that backing younger primary challengers is the solution.

We also lay out what kind of messaging Democrats need to focus on to win back young voters and improve their brand. Donald Trump and the Republicans are wildly unpopular, but the Democrats are often even less popular. The answer? Be the party who fights for affordable healthcare and lowering everyday costs.

LEARN more about David's Political Action Committee: https://leaderswedeserve.com/

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, everybody. We've got a great one today, you know, for a change. David Hogg is with us.
0:10.4	You probably remember David from the March for Our Lives, which he helped organize after the
0:16.8	horrific school shooting that he survived at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School in
0:24.1	Parkland, Florida back in 2018.
0:27.3	Over 800,000 people gathered in Washington to demand action on gun violence and
0:35.5	there were demonstrations all over the world.
0:39.8	And March for Our Lives continues its work.
0:42.7	It passed a red flag law in Florida, which has saved lies and continues to do so.
0:51.3	And David has become a formidable political force, forming a political action committee.
0:57.9	Leaders we deserve working to elect young, progressive Democrats, and at times challenging
1:05.0	Democratic incumbents who are, as he puts it, asleep at the wheel, meaning challenging older Democrats who are just
1:13.1	staying in office to have a job. We'll talk about that and what Democrats can do to flip the
1:19.7	Congress during a week where a lot of crazy shit is happening, the Comey trial started with an absolutely pathetic performance
1:29.5	by the prosecution, which presented a page and a half case against the former U.S. Attorney
1:36.0	General. My prediction is that the, uh, judge will throw this one out before it goes to trial.
1:44.1	And, uh, New York York Attorney General Letitia James
1:47.3	was just indicted on one count of bank fraud. Oh, and Trump wants to prosecute Adam Schiff,
1:56.2	who was the lead impeachment manager in Trump's first impeachment trial and Jack Smith, who led
2:02.8	the prosecutions against Trump, as he told his supporters before the election, I am your retribution.
2:11.5	And Trump wants to jail Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson for defying Trump's National
2:20.6	Guard deployment, which Attorney General Pam Bondi will no doubt facilitate.
2:28.7	Bondi appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee last week and refused to answer questions from Democratic senators,
	...

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