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Despite pledging to spend $20 million to back younger, more progressive candidates, a PAC led by Democratic activist David Hogg has spent millions of dollars on political consultants, ads, and even fitness classes.
The PAC, Leaders We Deserve, spent just $455,000 to back three candidates in tough Democratic primary races over the first eight months of 2025, Axios reported.
That figure stands in contrast to the roughly $2.5 million spent on consultants, $1.1 million on digital ads, $965,000 on building donor lists, and nearly $5,000 on the fitness class subscription service ClassPass, according to federal campaign filings.
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David Hogg’s PAC, Leaders We Deserve, has reportedly spent millions of dollars on political consultants, ads and fitness classes. (GABY VELASQUEZ/ EL PASO TIMES / USA TODAY NETWORK)
“We provide a wellness benefit to our employees, like many employers across the country,” Kevin Lata, co-founder and executive director of Leaders We Deserve, told Axios. “Our projections show that every $1 we put into these investments will net $3–$5 by the end of the cycle. This helps to make sure every donation goes farther than it otherwise would.”
The group had $1.6 million in the bank at the end of August. Fox News Digital reached out to the PAC.
Leaders We Deserve has contributed to various candidates, including $300,000 to New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani.
The group also contributed $150,000 to House candidate Deja Foxx, a 25-year-old social media influencer and progressive activist, who lost the Democratic special election primary by 39 percentage points on July 15.
Irene Shin, who lost by a wide margin in a special Democratic primary in June to fill the House seat of the late Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., also received $5,000.
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David Hogg speaks onstage during the Fast Company Innovation Festival 2024 at BMCC Tribeca PAC on September 17, 2024 in New York City. (Photo by Eugene Gologursky/Getty Images for Fast Company) (Getty Images)
In June, Hogg served as vice chair for the Democratic National Committee, where he ignited a firestorm by pledging to shell out $20 million through Leaders We Deserve to support primary challenges against some older Democrats in safe blue districts.
“I ran to be DNC vice chair to help make the Democratic Party better, not to defend an indefensible status quo that has caused voters in almost every demographic group to move away from us. The DNC has pledged to remove me, and this vote has provided an avenue to fast-track that effort,” Hogg said after the DNC Credentials Committee voted on Monday to elevate a challenge to the vice chairs’ leadership positions.
The high operating expenditures under his leadership were mocked by New York state Sen. James Skoufis after Leaders We Deserve’s second-quarter FEC filings in June.
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“At this rate, [Hogg] would only have to raise a little over $3 billion in order to get his promised $20 million to primary candidates,” Skoufis wrote on X at the time. “THIS should be the story, folks.”
Lata told Axios that the PAC will have “many more endorsements to announce soon.”
