Federal Election Commission (FEC) records show gun control activist David Hogg has lived a wealthy life thanks to checks written by many donors to his political action committee (PAC). ing.
Hogg founded a group called Leaders We Deserve PAC after the 2022 midterm elections and says its goal is to elect Gen Z politicians to office across the country. He co-founded the PAC with Kevin Lata, the campaign manager for 2022 Gen Z Democratic Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.).
Congressman Maxwell Frost (D-FL) (Countess Jemal/Getty Images for Congressional Integrity Project)
Hogg started the group with much fanfare, tell National Public Radio (NPR) reported that a “social movement” was born on the left during former President Donald Trump’s term in office.
“I think each Trump term has seen a new chapter of social movements emerge: the Women’s March, the March for Our Lives, the environmental movement, the Black Lives Matter movement,” Hogg said.
Demonstrators gather for the Women’s March at the Georgia State Capitol on October 2, 2021 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Megan Varner/Getty Images)
Hogg touted his group’s efforts to elect young Democratic candidates and promised that Leaders We Deserve PAC would provide them with the resources they need to win their races.
[We’re] Pick them and say, “We want to help you run for office. We’re going to give you all the resources you need and basically coach you and help you get there.” I’m about to say, “I’ll help you hold your hand.” That’s the gap that currently exists in this space, at least for young people at the state legislative level.
Since Hogg’s group began, much of the millions of dollars it has raised have not been used to select candidates or carry out its stated mission, but rather to pay for lavish expenses such as travel, political consultants and legal fees. I was disappointed. In fact, the group had only invested in a small number of candidates (four to be exact) in 2023. One of them was Mr. Frost, who was already serving in the U.S. Congress, and the other was defeated in a special election in Alabama.Most of the group’s funding, 2023 FEC filing shownone of the money was used to support candidates, much of it going to Hogg and Lata as well as other political consultants at various companies, along with generous travel funds.
A year-end 2023 FEC filing from Leaders We Deserve says the group raised just over $3 million in its first year of operation. The group reported that his total income for 2023 was $3,035,868.87. This is an admirable amount of cash for a brand new PAC.
Some of the very famous donors who gave large sums to the PAC include film director Alexander Adel, who gave $10,000. Tusk Holdings CEO Bradley Tusk donated $10,000. Florida investor Gary Sugarman contributed another $10,000. Barbara Weitz, a wealthy donor from Omaha, Nebraska, gave $100,000. Judy Wise, a Chicago-based Democrat who served as an adviser on gun control in former President Barack Obama’s administration and is a longtime member of the left, donated $25,000. Amos Hostetter, chairman of Pilot House Associates, donated $25,000. San Francisco-based venture capitalist Ronald Conway donated $100,000. Former Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick donated $1,000. Lindsey Boylan, the Democrat who prosecuted former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, donated $1,000.
The group also received a total of $41,000 in three transfers from another PAC in which Hogg is a member called “Ban Assault Weapons Now!” The group, of course, is Hogg’s first major foray into politics, having risen to celebrity status after surviving the 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneham Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. .
David Hogg attends a national vigil marking the 11th anniversary of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, on December 6, 2023 in Washington, DC. (Nathan Howard/Getty Images)
The organization has several other smaller four-figure donations, including a $5,000 check dated Oct. 15, 2023, from former President Bill Clinton’s deputy attorney general, Jamie Golick. is. Mr. Gorlick currently works at the giant law firm WilmerHale and is also a member of Homeland. As of 2023, most donors to the Hogs Leaders We Deserve PAC will be small donors making less than $250 a pop, according to a report from the FEC, a security adviser to President Joe Biden’s administration. Ta. Other large donations to the organization include a $5,000 check from Bay Area, California-based philanthropists Nancy and Richard Robbins, and a $5,000 check from Harvard economics professor Arthur Siegel. is included. The group also received an additional $5,000 from Blue Heaven Initiative co-founder and principal Ian Simmons. sit Harvard University’s National Civil Service Advisory Council. Unsurprisingly, Hogg currently attends Harvard University as a student.
Robert Starr, CEO of Vermont-based green energy company Radiantek, donated $1,000 in two installments at the end of 2023. Actress Chandra Wilson, who played Dr. Miranda Bailey on Grey’s Anatomy and was nominated for four Emmy Awards, donated $2,500. In the summer of 2023.
But all of these large donations amount to less than $400,000 of the group’s multi-million dollar revenue, most of which clearly comes from smaller donors.
That’s where it gets interesting. So Hogg and his partners, Lata and others, raised all this money, then turned around and spent little of it on candidates or the causes they purported to support. They spent large sums of money on lavish lifestyles and political consulting.
Of the more than $3 million raised in its first year of operation, Leaders We Deserve PAC has spent it on its stated mission of electing Gen Z candidates, along with donations to other Democratic committees and groups. It only cost about $263,000, and I actually spent more than that. More than $1.4 million in travel and entertainment expenses such as hotels, flights, and meals, as well as salaries, spending on political consulting firms, and legal fees.
FEC records show Hogg’s group disbursed more than $51,000 in multiple payments to a group called Accelerate Political Advisors and another $25,000 in multiple payments to a company called Bee Compliance, LLC. It is shown that the amount was spent. Additionally, the group spent more than $83,000 in legal fees to Elias Law Group, a law firm headed by Democratic attorney Marc Elias. Records show Leaders We Deserve paid more than $28,000 in two separate payments for “communications consulting” for a group called “Liftoff Campaigns” and another $60,000 for “strategy consulting” for a company called “Lim Consulting Services.” I spent it.
Attorney Mark E. Elias (Robert Willett/Associated Press, News & Observer via Pool)
These payments pale in comparison to the more than $550,000 Leaders We Deserve PAC spent in more than a dozen payments to a political consulting firm called Middle Seat. Reasons for spending included “digital consulting,” “list acquisition,” “digital advertising,” and “SMS texting.”
However, the largest amount of money received from the group in 2023 was more than $563,000 in multiple payments made by Leaders We Deserve to a political consulting firm called Grassroots Analytics, LLC, primarily from Although it is said to be for “SMS text messaging”, it was also used for “list acquisition” etc. ” According to FEC records.
Before you get into the travel expenses, which are meticulously detailed throughout the FEC report, the group spent more than $1.314 million of the money it raised in its first year with other political consulting firms and legal fees alone. was spending. That means Mr. Hogg and his allies spent nearly half of the money he raised not on candidates, but only on other political consultants and legal fees.
Nearly $36,000 was also spent on travel, entertainment and meals for Hogg and Lata, which are listed throughout the FEC report. These include Uber and Lyft rides, flights, hotels, restaurants, and more.
Mr. Hogg himself was paid nearly $40,000, and Mr. Lata was paid more than $50,000, according to FEC filings. Since the group was launched in the middle of the year and these payments started in late summer, this represents just a few months’ worth of work rather than a full annual salary.
The group spent some of its proceeds on actual candidates. Sylvia Swain Campaign Committee – A campaign to elect a transgender Democrat to the 55th District of the Alabama House of Representatives in 2023. lost He appears to be the biggest beneficiary from Hogg’s group during the special primary election, receiving about $125,000 in several rounds of spending. Apparently his money was ineffective, as Swain lost to Travis Hendricks in the October 2023 primary. It was not a close race, with Hendrix receiving over 65% of the vote.
Nadarius Clark, a Democratic member of the Virginia House of Delegates, also received $100,000 in three separate payments from Hogg’s group. Clark actually won the election. The filing also shows that Leaders We Deserve PAC donated his $5,000 to former Miss Texas and current Avery Bishop. running As a Democrat from Texas’ 112th Congressional District. Aside from those donations and a $3,300 check to Mr. Frost, a former U.S. representative for Mr. Lata, Mr. Hogg’s business partner in running the PAC, no more of the group’s funds are spent in the United States. It does not appear to have been passed directly to other candidates running for office. .
That means Hogg’s group spent just under $235,000 on actual candidates in 2023.
However, the group has donated to various organizations and Democratic Party committees, including $5,000 to the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee (DLCC), $2,500 to Annie’s List PAC, $2,500 to the Texas Democratic Party, and $5,000 to the Nebraska Democratic Party. reduced some checks to. , $5,000 to the Congressional Progressive Caucus PAC, $5,000 to the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Bold PAC, and another $3,300 to Frost’s leadership PAC called “Love Supremacy PAC.”
Donations to Democratic Party committees and left-wing groups totaled more than $28,000. So the group spent a total of about $263,000 on actual campaigns and candidates, but more than $1 million more in personal expenses, political consultants, fees, etc. .
Hogg did not respond to multiple requests for comment from Breitbart News for this article.
