Dnc Chair Rips Vice Chair David Hogg's Plan To Challenge Incumbent Democrats

Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin said Thursday that party officers should be banned from taking sides in primaries, countering DNC Vice Chair David Hogg's plan to raise money for candidates challenging Democratic incumbents.

Martin's proposal escalates a public feud between the new DNC boss and Hogg, who rose to prominence as a gun-control advocate after surviving the 2018 school shooting in Parkland, Florida. Both were elected by DNC members earlier this year.

Martin said he's drafting proposed bylaw changes to require officers to remain neutral in all Democratic primaries.

Martin said party neutrality is crucial to maintaining the confidence of voters, pointing to the bitter feud that emerged after supporters of Sen. Bernie Sanders' 2016 campaign believed he was stymied by party insiders putting their thumb on the scale in favor of Hillary Clinton, who won the nomination but went on to lose the general election to Donald Trump.

"You can't be both the player and the referee," Martin wrote in an opinion piece published by Time.