Malcolm Kenyatta says David Hogg is distorting the truth as DNC moves toward new leadership election

DNC Vice Chair Malcolm Kenyatta says he’s had enough of the “telenovela” swirling around the party’s internal dispute—and he’s placing the blame squarely on fellow Vice Chair David Hogg. On Monday, the Democratic National Committee’s Credentials Committee voted to recommend a redo of the February election that elevated Kenyatta and Hogg to leadership positions after both were elected to fill two empty vice chair seats. Now Kenyatta is speaking out about the decision and Hogg's recent comments, saying Hogg is pushing “a narrative about himself that’s completely divorced from the facts.”

The panel cited a procedural flaw raised by Oklahoma DNC member Kalyn Free, who alleged that the voting method violated party gender-parity rules and disadvantaged women candidates.

Kenyatta noted in an interview with The Advocate that the initial complaint was filed in early February, before Hogg introduced efforts to fund primary challengers against Democratic incumbents in safe congressional seats. Critics argue that Hogg’s dual roles — as a DNC vice chair and president of the outside group Leaders We Deserve — present a conflict since the group is actively working to unseat fellow Democrats.

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Hogg, a 25-year-old gun safety activist, issued a statement after the vote declaring, “The DNC has pledged to remove me, and this vote has provided an avenue to fast-track that effort,” according to a post by Semafor reporter David Weigel.

The news about the DNC's decision made headlines, specifically around Hogg.

But Kenyatta said Hogg's comments are misleading and self-serving.

“I think the average person has little to no interest in internal party bullshit,” Kenyatta told The Advocate in a Tuesday interview. “But if we are going to have a conversation about internal party bullshit, we need to at least tell the truth about what’s happening and not allow one individual to hijack the conversation to push a narrative about himself that’s completely divorced from the facts.”

“That individual,” Kenyatta said, “is David Hogg.”

Kenyatta took to social media Monday to call out both Hogg and the DNC. He noted that he received more raw votes than any other candidate in the February election and claimed that the facts don’t support Hogg's narrative.

“His first press release after this happened was, this is the DNC taking the 'first steps to remove' him when he knows full well — just like I know — that this challenge … originated in early February,” Kenyatta told The Advocate. “And so he should be honest about those facts.”

The Pennsylvania state representative, who is one of the few out queer Black men in national party leadership, said the media’s fixation on Hogg has distorted the stakes and ignored the work being done to beat Republicans and President Donald Trump’s authoritarian takeover of the U.S.

Focusing on one person has led the DNC to ignore "the real work we need to do to bring this party together to address the seriousness of this moment,” Kenyatta said.

"[Hogg] has been allowed to flood the zone with misinformation about how this is going on and painting himself as the victim," Kenyatta said. “But the victims here are people who are losing their health care. The only victims here are the people who are losing their housing. The victims here are working families that are paying more than they should be paying at the pump, for baby supplies, for everything else, because of this trade war."

Kenyatta disagrees with the committee’s decision but accepts it, he said. “This committee had the right to decide. They did decide. That’s how things go,” he said. “And I disagree with their decisions, and I’m going to abide by them. What I’m not going to do is spend a bunch of time saying I’m the victim when this is not about anybody being the victim.”

Instead, he said he wants Democrats and journalists to center the crisis unfolding in real time: “Republicans are gutting Medicare, Medicaid. They’re trying to do an underhanded overturn of Obamacare, not to mention the all-out assault that we’ve seen on our trans siblings and members of the LGBTQ community.”

“I depended on food stamps. I depended on Medicare [before my parents died] and Medicaid. And that is what I want to be talking about,” he added. “That is the only reason I’m in this job.”

The DNC’s internal dispute also comes as party leaders face pressure to clarify expectations of neutrality in primary elections. DNC Chair Ken Martin doubled down on his ultimatum to Hogg this weekend: Sign a neutrality pledge or step aside. “When you lead the institution that calls balls and strikes, you don’t get to also swing the bat,” Martin posted on X, formerly Twitter, saying he would introduce new rules to enforce neutrality for all officers.

Kenyatta agrees the party must be neutral in supporting its candidates — but says that’s not the same as being passive.

“We’re not for the incumbents; we’re also not for the challengers,” he said. “We are for listening to our voters who make the decisions about who they want our nominees to be.”

Kenyatta pointed to Hogg’s comments around the controversy as a battle over whether progressives can back primaries. “He’s put up this straw man to say we should have robust primaries. He’s right. We support that,” Kenyatta said. “But what we’re not for is putting our finger on the scale.”

“I am for a robust primary process. This party is for a robust primary process,” he said, noting that the first event he did after being elected was with the group Run for Something. “I have a literal documentary called Do Not Wait Your Turn.”

That 2023 film, executive produced by Al Roker, documented Kenyatta’s 2022 U.S. Senate campaign and the systemic barriers he faced. Though ultimately unsuccessful, the campaign made history and helped cement Kenyatta as a political voice. Kenyatta unsuccessfully ran for Pennsylvania auditor general in 2024.

But that story, he said, has been ignored in favor of an easier, flashier one. “Legacy media has rushed to reprint any op-ed or any press release put out by David Hogg and has completely ignored the reality of what has been going on from day one,” Kenyatta said. “You look at every story that’s written about this, and it’s, ‘Oh, my gosh, the party is doing this to David.’”

Kenyatta added, “If we are going to focus on the telenovela, we ought to get the characters right, we ought to get the plot right, and we ought to educate people on what’s going on."

The Advocate contacted the Democratic National Committee and Hogg for comment, but neither responded by publication time.

Hogg did address the controversy Tuesday night in an appearance on MSNBC’sThe Weeknight, where he said, “I have an enormous amount of respect for Malcolm Kenyatta as a vice chair of the DNC. Obviously, there’s disagreements that we have.”

Hogg acknowledged that the challenge to the February vote was filed months ago, but argued that “the consensus prior to our announcement of the primary challenge effort was that this effort to redo the elections was not going to make it past the committee.” He said the shift reflects “a convenient way to remove me effectively with a simple majority,” rather than going through a two-thirds vote required to strip an officer of their position.

He argued that party members are reacting to his work supporting primary challengers, saying it has “caught up Vice Chair Kenyatta as well.”

Hogg pushed back on claims that his actions were unprecedented, noting that other DNC vice chairs have had leadership PACs. “What I’m doing that’s different from before is I’m challenging the status quo in a direct way and head on. And that really scares people,” he said. “Frankly, I think right now nobody should be comfortable when our country is in a moment of crisis.”