David Hogg waves white flag at the DNC after vote to redo his election

The whole Hogg experience is over at the Democratic National Committee.

David Hogg, the gun-control activist turned liberal rabble-rouser, announced he is not running again to serve as co-vice chair of the DNC after members voted to redo the party’s vice chairs’ election, which Mr. Hogg and Malcolm Kenyatta had won earlier this year.

The decision was ostensibly tied to the party’s recognition that the contest for vice chair failed to conform to party rules that require the posts to be “equally divided as practicable” along gender lines.

The 25-year-old’s short-lived stint was rife with drama, thanks to his decision to spearhead a group called Leaders We Deserve, which planned to spend upward of $20 million on primary challenges against Democrats in deep-blue districts considered “asleep at the wheel.”

In a statement, Mr. Hogg said the stiff blowback against his role as vice chair had become too much of a distraction for the national party, and that he would shift more of his focus to Leaders We Deserve.

“It’s OK to have disagreements. What isn’t OK is allowing this to remain our focus when there is so much more we need to be focused on,” he said. “Ultimately, I have decided to not run in this upcoming election so the party can focus on what really matters.” 

“I need to do this work with Leaders We Deserve, and it is going to remain my number one mission to build the strongest party possible,” he said.

Mr. Hogg became a national figure after surviving the 2018 Parkland High School shooting massacre in Florida and becoming an outspoken gun-control activist and co-founder of March for Our Lives.

Mr. Hogg created headaches for Ken Martin, the party’s newly minted chair, who aired his frustration in a recent leaked call with DNC members, going as far as to suggest he had lost interest in is post.

“No one knows who the hell I am, right? I’m trying to get my sea legs underneath of me and actually develop any amount of credibility so I can go out there and raise the money and do the job I need to, to put ourselves in a position to win,” Mr. Martin told DNC leaders..

“And again, I don’t think you intended this, but you essentially destroyed any chance I have to show the leadership what I need to. It’s really frustrating,” Mr. Martin.

Mr. Hogg maintained that in the weeks leading up to the DNC’s decision to redo the vote, he was being targeted because of his push to shake up the party in the primaries.

“I am challenging the status quo in a direct way and head-on, and that really scares people,” Mr. Hogg said on MSNBC this week. “Frankly, I think right now, nobody should be comfortable when our country is in a moment of crisis, and I think there is too much comfortability across the board.”