Rebel Ex-DNC Official Hogg’s PAC Endorses Gen Z Candidate in Arizona Race

Former Democratic National Committee Vice Chair David Hogg’s political action committee, Leaders We Deserve, has endorsed a Gen Z challenger, Deja Foxx, in an Arizona special congressional primary next week. 

“Deja Foxx has been holding Republicans’ and career politicians’ feet to the fire since she was 15 years old. She’s an organizer who has carved her own path after experiencing homelessness and working at a gas station—and she is ready to fight for Tucson, her hometown,” Hogg explained in a statement. 

Foxx is a 25-year-old activist who obtained national attention for asking then-Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., about Planned Parenthood at a town hall meeting when she was 16 years old. 

She would likely be the youngest member in the House of Representatives if elected. Foxx is contending in the July 15 primary for the Democrat nomination in Arizona’s solidly blue 7th Congressional District. 

The primary is for a special election to fill the congressional seat that was vacated by Raúl Grijalva, who died in office on March 13. His daughter, Adelita Grijalva, a former member of the Pima County Board of Supervisors, is also set to compete in the primary. All told, there are five candidates vying to succeed the elder Grijalva, including Daniel Hernandez, a former intern for then-Rep. Gabby Giffords, D-Ariz., who may have saved the then-congresswoman’s life when she was shot at a constituent event in 2011.

Despite that connection, Giffords; her husband Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz.; and Arizona’s other Democrat senator, Ruben Gallego, have endorsed the younger Grijalva. 

Hogg’s organization is expected to spend $20 million to elect younger Democrats from now into 2026. Hogg—like Foxx, 25 years old—drew national prominence as a result of his gun control activism stemming from surviving the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, in February 2018.

“People say they want change in the Democratic Party, but really, they want change so long as it doesn’t potentially endanger their position of power,” Hogg explained to The New York Times in April. 
Hogg’s refusal to sign a neutrality pledge in Democrat primaries as promoted by DNC Chair Ken Martin contributed to tensions between Hogg and the national Democratic Party leadership, leading to him ultimately to resign last month from a vice chair position he had been elected to in February.

If Foxx wins the July 15 Democrat primary, she will square off on Sept. 23 against the winner of the Republican primary, in which there are three candidates, in a special election to fill out the remainder of Raúl Grijalva’s term. The 20-something Gen Z activist could become a colleague of namesake Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., who at 82 is one of the oldest House members and has been in Congress since 2005.