Stephen Lynch

“This race is not about Stephen Lynch’s age — it’s about his track record,” Hogg told roughly 40 Roath supporters in Roslindale, including state Representative Sam Montaño, Boston City Councilors Enrique Pepén and Ben Weber, and members of the Boston Teachers Union.

“I would not be here right now if this race was not very close,” Hogg said.

That dynamic has pushed the primary into a stratosphere of races nationwide testing voters’ appetite for replacing longtime Democratic incumbents with younger, often more progressive voices.

Roath, who has pledged to bring a “future-oriented, optimistic vision” to Congress, is one of 47 candidates Leaders We Deserve has endorsed this cycle in congressional and state legislative races from Texas to Minnesota. The PAC is also backing Daniel Lander in his challenge to state Senator William Brownsberger in the Massachusetts Legislature, and Hogg is planning to headline an event for Lander on Monday alongside Boston Mayor Michelle Wu.

Of the candidates the PAC has backed, 34 have won a primary or general election so far, though many were uncontested, intraparty races. Hogg said many of the incumbents the group planned to target ultimately retired, in a year that has seen a staggering number of incumbents exiting Congress.

That’s put a heavier focus on the Eighth District. Hogg’s group has poured at least $470,000 into the primary as of last week — which is among the most the group says it has spent on behalf of a candidate this cycle. That’s included nine mailers, including one that refers to Lynch as “MAGA’s favorite Democrat.”

Roath and Hogg have repeatedly criticized past votes Lynch took on immigration and health care, which the congressman has defended throughout the campaign. And Lynch has dismissed many of the attacks as “ridiculous stuff that you hear in the middle of a campaign.” He has repeatedly decried the money Leaders We Deserve and other groups have spent on Roath’s behalf, and Lynch’s campaign has charged that Hogg’s group has been “lying about his record in Congress.”

Lynch has repeatedly pointed to the Trump administration dubbing him an “ICE agitator” and his enduring support from unions such as the Massachusetts AFL-CIO and groups that back left-leaning candidates, such as the Planned Parenthood Action Fund.

“Money in politics is probably the most insidious impact and danger to our democracy right now,” Lynch said during a forum in Weymouth this month, the only one where both candidates appeared together on stage this campaign. “My opponent has had four mailings. You probably got them all, and they’re all from PACs that he’s working with.”

Lynch said on a radio program Thursday that he has done about two dozen town halls with senior centers and councils on aging and that he’s spent the last seven weeks knocking on doors. This weekend, he attended Norwood Day alongside State Senator Mike Rush, also facing a primary challenge to his left.

“It seems like we’re fighting amongst ourselves, the Democrats, rather than focusing on getting back into this government,” Lynch said during an interview with the Boston Neighborhood Network on Thursday, adding that he’s a moderate trying to keep other moderates “in the Democratic column.”

“We don’t want to be the party of protesters,” he said.

Hogg made a name for himself nationally leading protests against gun violence. After graduating from Harvard University in 2023, he then turned his attention to the Democratic Party. He briefly served as a DNC co-vice chair beginning in February 2025, before stepping down that June amid criticism from Democratic leaders who disagreed with his plans to get involved in races against sitting Democrats.

Hogg said his group backs candidates under the age of 45 for Congress and those under 35 in state legislatures with certain progressive beliefs, such as supporting Medicare for All.

Jesse Lehrich, a Democratic strategist based in Washington, D.C., said that while he believes Hogg has his finger on the pulse of the change Democrats are looking for, “he has taken a pretty adversarial tone toward not just the establishment.”

“He’s not exactly pitching a big-tent version of the Democratic Party,” Lehrich said.

He pointed to Hogg’s support of some longshot candidates, such as Deja Foxx, a content creator who lost her Democratic primary in Arizona last year by nearly 40 percentage points. But Lynch, he said, is a “good target” for Hogg: “He’s a pretty centrist voice in a blue seat for a long time.”

Roath has leaned into criticisms that Lynch hasn’t been active enough for the district, which stretches from Boston south of the city. “This is a place that should be fighting above its weight,” he said.

In a Roslindale neighborhood with mailboxes stuffed with mailers and lawn signs, Hogg had a much warmer reception than he’s used to getting on social media Sunday afternoon.

“I’ve been waiting my whole life for this kid to grow up,” one woman said of Hogg, after stopping to ask Roath about his outside funding.

“You can be my hero if you vote for Patrick,” Hogg replied.

Hogg has said he was drawn to the race after watching a clip of Lynch last year sparring with a protester upset with Democrats’ response to Trump, during which Lynch said, “I’m elected. You want to decide that? You need to run for Congress.”

In Hogg’s view, Democrats’ “No. 1 guiding philosophy is risk aversion.”

“The reality is, it is so hard to defeat a Democratic incumbent,” he said. But he added that if one does “get defeated, it’s because [they] genuinely aren’t doing the work.”