DNC subcommittee recommends redoing vice-chair elections, putting David Hogg and Malcolm Kenyatta’s roles in jeopardy

The Democratic National Committee’s Credentials subcommittee has recommended that the party should once again hold vice-chair elections over complaints that there were issues with how the balloting was conducted — a move that places its vice chairs David Hogg and Malcolm Kenyatta in jeopardy of losing their positions.

The recommendation, made after the committee’s vote on Monday, comes after the party-wide officer races in February. The subcommittee’s deliberations were based on a challenge filed by vice chair candidate Kalyn Free on how the election was conducted.

Free’s counsel argued that the way some of the voting was conducted allowed Hogg and Kenyatta to unfairly receive more votes than Free, who also sought a vice-chair role.

The resolution is not the final decision and neither Kenyatta nor Hogg are stripped of their titles in the meantime; it will have to be adopted or rejected by the entire DNC body in an electronic or in-person vote. The timing of this wider vote is unclear, but party officials said in statements after the vote that they want to act quickly.

The vote was based on a challenge Free filed in late February, before the eruption of a dispute between Hogg, whose separate organization Leaders We Deserve is supporting primary challengers to Democratic incumbents, and others in the party who believe the DNC needs to remain neutral.

But Hogg, a Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting survivor who aims to reform the Democratic Party, claimed Monday that the committee vote can’t be disentangled from his dispute with the party.

“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,” Hogg said in a statement after Monday’s vote.

Hogg argued that because of his announcement that his organization would support primary challengers, the DNC has “made it clear they were going to remove me… I ran to be DNC Vice Chair to help make the Democratic Party better, not to defend an indefensible status quo that has caused voters in almost every demographic group to move away from us. The DNC has pledged to remove me, and this vote has provided an avenue to fast-track that effort.”

Kenyatta, in a thread posted on X late Monday night, said he respects the vote, but is frustrated by it. He criticized the focus on Hogg, emphasizing his own work as a vice chair.

“I disagree with the ruling, but ultimately the committee voted and I respect their votes — even when I really disagree. Second, the press has been breathless in covering the main character they’ve chosen — David Hogg. They are rushing to do it again. I call BS,” Kenyatta, a Pennsylvania state representative, wrote.

Kenyatta called the committee’s move a “slap in the face.” He added that he has done the work to keep the vice chair job and is “frustrated” Hogg wants to make it all about him.

In a statement to ABC News early Tuesday morning, Free, the DNC member and vice chair candidate who initially challenged the results, applauded the credentials committee for “righting this wrong.”

Free wrote, “I have always known that the Democratic Party is the party of free and fair elections. Today, the credentials committee of the DNC confirmed that correcting mistakes in process, and protecting democracy is more important than saving face. This was never about Malcolm Kenyatta or David Hogg. For me, this was about ensuring that the Democratic Party lives up to our ideals as the only political party to believe in and stand up for a free and fair democracy.”

In response to the decision, DNC Chair Ken Martin said he was “disappointed to learn that before I became Chair, there was a procedural error in the February Vice Chair elections.”

He added: “I thank all of our officers for their service, including Vice Chairs Kenyatta and Hogg, and look forward to continuing to work with them in their officer posts as this matter is resolved.”