Tuesday gave us a preview of ex-Democratic National Committee Vice Chair David Hogg’s plan to meddle in the party’s primaries to get more young, far-left activists involved.
TL;DR: If early returns are any indication, this wasn’t worth ruining his DNC gig over.
With 77 percent of the vote counted as of Wednesday morning, Adelita Grijalva — the daughter of the Arizona Rep. Raúl Grijalva, whose death sparked the special election — had 62 percent of the vote, according to Associated Press figures.
Deja Foxx, the Gen Z influencer that Hogg’s Leaders We Deserve PAC was backing, was a beyond-distant second with 21 percent of the vote.
Given that Arizona’s 7th Congressional District is as deep blue as they come, the September general election is merely a formality.
“This is a victory not for me, but for our community and the progressive movement my dad started in Southern Arizona more than 50 years ago,” Grijalva said in a statement after the victory.
However, the real takeaway could best be summed up by The Washington Post, which called it “the Mamdani sequel that wasn’t.”
“Foxx, who had appeared to gain a bit of momentum in recent weeks, left some Democrats wondering if she could pull off a surprise win like Mamdani,” the Post noted.
“But the antiestablishment message that Mamdani deployed in New York was harder for Grijalva’s opponents to replicate given her support from many of the same liberal groups and leaders who backed Mamdani, and the fact that she had not held prior federal office.”
Should David Hogg have been booted from the DNC?
Indeed, Foxx’s main qualification came from being a hashtag activist on Instagram, particularly when it came to the right to abort babies; she’d gone viral in her teens for confronting then-Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake and has never given up the spotlight on left-bubble social media.
This was enough to convince Hogg — whose plan to spend $20 million to primary older establishment Democrats in blue seats is suspected by many to be the reason why the DNC chose to oust him on procedural grounds — to back the 25-year-old Foxx in what seemed to be a pilot run.
“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 in his endorsement earlier this month.
“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.”
And Foxx, meanwhile, was touting polling that showed her within striking distance of Grijalva — who, it’s worth noting, not only has name recognition but actual governing experience as a former Pima County supervisor:
This is momentum! We have just 2 weeks left to make history and elect the first woman of our generation to Congress. pic.twitter.com/HvhIL17FAn
— Deja Foxx (@Deja_Foxx) July 1, 2025
Not. Even. Close.
It’s unclear whether Hogg sealed Foxx’s fate, or whether it was the other way around. Hogg’s brand is more toxic than a Superfund site after his exit from the DNC, and while his endorsement was supposed to add momentum to the influencer’s campaign, it might have scared people willing to give her a chance off due to the damage Hogg has already managed to wreak in the party.
On the other hand, tying this brilliant proposal to inject new blood into the Democratic Party with a 25-year-old “Gen Z influencer” — which is seriously the only three words on her CV — was a very preventable mistake that Hogg apparently couldn’t be disabused of.
What other warning signs did he need? The fact the dead politician’s own daughter, who has political experience, was running for the seat? Or that she had picked up endorsements from people who usually side with Hogg’s apoplectic twaddle, like Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez? Or simply the still-undefeated maxim that the internet is not real life?
This is a preview of what David Hogg basically ruined his career in legitimate political activism to pursue. Nice work. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to make a gift purchase of the book “When Bad Things Happen to Horrible People” from Amazon for a certain someone. Anyone know Leaders We Deserve PAC’s address offhand?
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