David Hogg’s Pac Endorses Challenger To Stephen Lynch

David Hogg is wading into the Democratic primary in Massachusetts’ 8th congressional district, backing a well-funded progressive challenge to a longtime incumbent.

Hogg’s progressive group Leaders We Deserve is endorsing Patrick Roath, a 38-year-old attorney and voting rights advocate who’s taking on Rep. Stephen Lynch in the district that covers parts of Boston, Quincy and the surrounding suburbs.

“It's one thing for Democrats to say, ‘Democracy is in danger,’ but we actually need to say very clearly what we're going to do and have the experience to build a better democracy — and Patrick has that experience,” Hogg, who cofounded Leaders We Deserve in 2023, told POLITICO in an interview.

Hogg, who served as vice chair of the Democratic National Committee for four months last year, alluded to issues of national political concern in explaining the endorsement, saying that Roath is a candidate “who actually understands the affordability crisis that we're in.”

But the endorsement is also personal. “When my dad was sick with Parkinson's, the Affordable Care Act took care of him, ensured that he wasn’t kicked off of his health care and helped keep my family out of debt,” the 25-year-old Parkland shooting survivor said. Lynch was one of 39 House Democrats to vote against the Affordable Care Act in 2009 — a vote Roath has criticized in his campaign.

That’s just one area where the first-time candidate is looking to draw distinctions between himself and the incumbent. Roath, who previously served as an aide to former Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick, has also condemned more recent votes Lynch has taken, from his support for a resolution expressing "gratitude to law enforcement officers, including U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement personnel, for protecting the homeland,” to his support for the Laken Riley Act, legislation that allows for the detention of undocumented immigrants accused but not yet convicted of certain crimes.

Roath’s run is not the first time Lynch, who will be 71 when he’s back on the ballot in September, has faced criticism for these stances – or even a primary challenge from the left. The South Boston Democrat handily beat back a challenge from Robbie Goldstein, an infectious disease doctor, in 2020.

But growing discontent among Democratic voters with their own party could change the dynamics this time around, ahead of the Sept. 1 primary. At a rally last February, Lynch sparred with an attendee amid calls for Congress to stand up more forcefully to President Donald Trump, a back-and-forth that ended up with him challenging those in the crowd to run for Congress if they disagreed with his posture.

“We think we people are ready for change in this district,” said Roath, who recently earned an endorsement from his former boss, Deval Patrick. The Democrat, who hails from Boston’s Jamaica Plain neighborhood, outraised Lynch in the third quarter of 2025, though Lynch still had a cash advantage with just over $1 million on hand to Roath’s roughly $260,000.

Leaders We Deserve has pledged to spend $20 million to boost younger challengers looking to oust sitting House members in safe-blue seats. In Tennessee, the group announced it would be spending $1 million in support of state Rep. Justin Pearson, one of the “Tennessee Three” who was expelled from and reelected to the state House — and is now challenging longtime Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.), who condemned his expulsion from the state House in 2023.

Hogg briefly served as the DNC's vice chair last year. But his efforts to challenge “asleep-at-the-wheel” Democrats in safely blue seats sparked a firestorm among DNC members, who argued his role with the national party conflicted with his pledge to take on incumbents. Hogg was later removed from the role after a procedural complaint unrelated to his primary efforts, and he declined to run again when the DNC called a new election for the role in favor of focusing on Leaders We Deserve.

The endorsement in Massachusetts’ 8th congressional district comes as Democrats are caught in the midst of a party-wide identity search and a simmering debate over just how far left their national message should go. In Hogg’s view, Democrats have played it too safe in recent years — and it’ll take progressives running in safe seats to create an agenda that’ll appeal nationally.

“Our message needs to be: This is who we are; this is what we stand for, and we speak on what we actually believe in, and not just what we are against,” Hogg said. “The only way that we're going to get there is if we have Democrats who actually create a culture of competition in our safe seats.”