We moved out to Florida to Parkland because it was the safest community that we could find.
During the lockdown, Hogg recorded video of himself interviewing fellow students.
At the time of the shooting, Maxwell Frost lived across the state.
Hogg meeting with President Biden in the Oval Office in 2023.Courtesy of Adam Schultz
Frost was 21, and working as an organizer for the American Civil Liberties Union.
He DMed a few students, offering to help, and one of them wrote back with an address.
It was three hours away, but Frost packed a bag and jumped in his car.
According to Hogg, that law has been used at least 19,000 times since the shooting at Stoneman Douglas.
Those illusions were quickly shattered.
Obviously, it affected him, Gonzalez says.
He was like: They dont know me.
Eventually, it got to be too much for them: It was killing me, Gonzalez says.
I had conversations with him like, Why?
Why dont you want to enjoy your life?
He likes surfing; hes a beach-dwelling person.
I was like, Why cant you let go a little bit?
Give your body back to yourself, Gonzalez says.
But he just cant let go when he knows there is a problem.
But hes sober about the fact that his activism has made him a polarizing figure.
Im such a lightning rod for Republicans, specifically because of my views on guns.
Its also the reason why he started a PAC, Leaders We Deserve, to help elect young candidates.
One of the biggest driving factors for Democrats loss in 2024 was massive drop in support from 18-to-29-year-olds.
He recalls looking around the room during that briefing.
I did not see a single person in that room under the age of 30, he says.
I was trying to say, like, Hey, guys, this is a problem.
Even now, after the fact, he says, it still feels like no one is listening.
We went out there for eight years saying Donald Trump is a threat to democracy.
If hes elected, the world is going to end and democracy is over.
Lets throw our hands up in the air, and well see you again in four years.
Hogg does not exempt himself entirely from blame.
The first thing he asked me was, How do we win young voters?
(Five won, seven lost.)
And the only way were going to address that is with our government.
Theres no market solution thats going to fix that.
Thats why Im running for this position, Hogg says.
Ive been impacted by that failed political system far too much, and I want to fucking fix it.
