Hogg, Still Bucking Democratic Party, Endorses ‘Gen Z Influencer’ in Race to Fill Open House Seat

Now freed from the constraints of his job on the Democratic National Committee, febrile left-wing activist David Hogg can primary party favorites to his heart’s desire. If his preferred candidate in one of the most competitive special election seats the Dems will see in quite a while is any indication, he should have just stuck with vice chairing the DNC and not frittered away his money on primary battles.

According to The Hill, Hogg’s PAC, Leaders We Deserve, announced on Wednesday that it was supporting a “Gen Z influencer” in the race to replace Rep. Raúl Grijalva, a Democrat who died in office in March.

Deja Foxx is an Instagram star who rose to prominence in her teens by confronting then-Arizona GOP Sen. Jeff Flake about abortion and defunding Planned Parenthood, asking him: “Why would you deny me the American dream?”

Yeah, apparently, the “American dream” is aborting the unborn in modern-day charnel mills. I was under the impression — despite the fact I’d heard, somewhere, that she had endorsed Kamala Harris in both 2020 and 2024 — that this was when she peaked. When I heard she was actually looking to get elected to office, I thought her run for Grijalva’s seat was a vanity campaign meant to keep the clicky-clickies coming in.

I’m still unconvinced that it isn’t, but don’t tell that to the deep-pocketed Hogg, who thinks that she can win this sucker when voters go to the polls on July 15 in the primary and Sept. 23 in the general election.

“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 said, per the Hill.

“Deja knows people like her haven’t been seen in politics, and she has translated her story to represent a new vision of generational change that speaks truth to Trump’s cruel policies,” he added, assumedly referencing the fact that Foxx is a Filipina-American.

Foxx, meanwhile, said she was “excited” to work with Hogg.

“I’m proud to be in this fight with Leaders We Deserve, an organization that understands the power of young people to transform politics and fight for communities that have been left out,” she said.

Here’s her campaign announcement, in which she declares, “I didn’t pick politics; politics picked me.”

This isn’t just politics—it’s personal. From long nights at the gas station to becoming the first in my family to graduate college—I know what’s at stake because I’ve lived it. This moment calls for more than a politician. You deserve a fighter.
I’m running for #AZ07. #FoxxForAZ pic.twitter.com/xVBxRtSIgd

— Deja Foxx (@Deja_Foxx) April 2, 2025

So sayeth a young woman who’s barely of electable age (she turned 25 in April, the minimum age for a representative) and who has been banging on about progressivism since J.D. Vance was a recently published memoirist who’d previously worked in venture capital and David Hogg was an unknown high school student in Florida. Sure, Jan.

If this were a question of a mostly cleared field with no favorite and moderates populating the primary ranks, this wouldn’t be such an issue. Grijalva’s only sorta-close election came in the Tea Party rout of 2010, when he won by only six points; all of his other races saw double-digit wins, with a 29-point victory in 2022 and a 26-point victory in 2024. Unless they select someone uniquely idiotic, Arizona’s 7th Congressional District is a safe Democratic hold.

Aside from the fact I’d argue Foxx is probably uniquely idiotic — and at the very least, unqualified (when the only experience people are using to buttress a candidate’s weak “Gen Z influencer” résumé is the vague term “organizer,” that candidate is in trouble) — the thing is that there is a favorite: Grijalva’s daughter, who has actual experience in government.

Yes, former Pima County Supervisor Adelita Grijalva is considered the prohibitive favorite in the race, having gotten the endorsement of Arizona Democratic Sens. Ruben Gallego and Mark Kelly, as well as progressives like Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York. But why not barge into the race like the Kool-Aid Man and spend your money on an unproven social media firebrand to oust an otherwise popular daughter of a late congressman, Mr. Hogg? After all, your party might not hate you enough already.

But wait, there’s more: Grijalva is running “in addition to businessman Patrick Harris Sr.; former state Rep. Daniel Hernandez, who helped save former Rep. Gabby Giffords’s (D-Ariz.) life after the 2011 Tucson-area shooting; and doctoral student José Malvido Jr.,” The Hill noted.

Hernandez is the favorite of the moderate wing of the party, having “received endorsements from a mix of former and current Arizona legislators, the Teamsters and several U.S. House members, among others,” the outlet reported.

And the Instagram flibbertigibbet has … Hogg.

This is the kind of candidate the former DNC vice-chair wanted to spend $20 million to support in the primaries. I suppose in a post-Zohran Mamdani primary victory world, anything’s possible — but this is the kind of thing that makes you feel for DNC chair Ken Martin. I feel icky typing those words, but truth is truth.

But that’s who this guy is. After all these defeats on the national stage, David Hogg and the progressive flank of his party are still totally unserious. If Foxx wins — which isn’t an impossibility in an unpredictable special election — these fools will get exactly the kind of representation they deserve — and the DNC will have to have a come-to-Jesus moment, again, about where it is in 2025, having taken away nothing from America’s rejection of its leftward drift.

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