The Democratic National Committee‘s headache over David Hogg is not over, despite the party voting for his removal from the vice chairmanship and his subsequent decision not to run for another term.

Hogg, who has levied harsh criticism over elderly incumbent Democrats’ refusals to step down from their offices, will continue working with his organization, Leaders We Deserve, which supports younger leaders who are primarying senior members.

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DAVID HOGG RULES OUT ANOTHER DNC RUN AFTER VOTE TO HOLD NEW ELECTIONS

“This culture simply will not change by only focusing on open seats or just throwing half a billion dollars into 30 competitive House seats. We must change the culture of our party that has brought us here,” Hogg wrote in a statement announcing his intention not to seek a leadership position. “And if there is anything activism or history teaches us it’s that comfortable people, especially comfortable people with power, do not change. In this moment of crisis, comfort is not an option.”

The Gen Z Democrat accused fellow Democrats of not having the energy and a clear enough vision to combat President Donald Trump and the GOP-controlled Congress.

Locked out of power, Democrats have struggled to find a cohesive message to win back disaffected voters. Some Democrats have pushed for the party to focus on economic issues that can win back working-class voters, while other members have pushed for an aggressive fight against Republicans.

Polling backs up Hogg’s argument. A new Quinnipiac University poll showed just 21% of voters approved of how Democrats in Congress are handling their job, while 70% disapproved. Among Democrats, 41% said they approved of the way Democrats in Congress are handling their job, while 53% disapproved.

“There’s some points that David has brought up that I think are valid. I think we need additional communicators up here in D.C.,” Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL) said.

“We have a ton of great progressive communicators. I think we need a lot more moderate communicators,” he continued. “But I think David is bringing up the point that we’re in a messaging war and we’re not winning.”

Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA), a fan of Hogg, similarly claimed that Hogg’s criticisms have some merit.

“I think his belief that we can’t approach the next central crisis to our democracy with old tactics is correct,” Swalwell said. “As a friend, I want him in our coalition, and I hope we can find a way for the DNC and David to work out any differences.”

Swalwell claimed it was clear that Hogg couldn’t last at the DNC. The full DNC membership voted on Wednesday in a 294-99 vote to hold new elections after a failed vice chair candidate challenged his election to the DNC board earlier this year.

Hogg’s decision to wade into primary battles incensed Democrats, who accused him of distracting from the fight against Trump. But Hogg doesn’t appear willing to back down from the effort to push out elderly leaders.

“After seeing a serious lack of vision from Democratic leaders, too many of them asleep at the wheel, and Democrats dying in office that have helped to hand Republicans an expanded majority,” Hogg claimed. “It became clear that Leaders We Deserve had to start primarying incumbents and directly challenging the culture of seniority politics that brought our party to this place to help get our party into fighting shape again.”

Since the start of the 119th Congress, at least three senior Democrats have died in office.

Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-VA) died in office last month of esophageal cancer. Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-AZ) died in March at the age of 77 after a battle with cancer. Rep. Sylvester Turner (D-TX) died at the age of 70 in March after recovering from cancer in 2022.

Their deaths have added to the frustrations that Democrats are too weak to effectively counter Trump’s domination of Washington.

Leaders We Deserve, with its $20 million war chest, endorsed state Delegate Irene Shin in the Democratic primary for the special election in Virginia’s 11th District, once represented by Connolly.

The drama over Hogg’s ouster from the DNC will likely bolster his fundraising efforts in the coming months. His group has already begun fundraising off his decision not to seek DNC leadership again, building up its war chest before the 2026 midterm elections.

Hogg’s ouster from the DNC also reignited questions about how the party can win back voters who defected for Trump during the November election — in particular, young and male voters.

But some Democrats claim that the Hogg drama won’t affect their ability to connect with voters.

“Whether or not the Democratic Party can connect with young men, young people at large, isn’t going to be dependent upon one leadership post at the DNC,” Sen. Andy Kim (D-NJ), a millennial, told the Washington Examiner.

“This is a deeper structural issue. I’ll be honest with you, like as someone who was a Democrat that won a congressional district that Trump won, nobody in my district was making their determinations on who to vote for based off of who was in leadership at the DNC, or things of that nature,” he continued.

The New Jersey senator pointed to his two young sons and the pressures they face as why he hopes “to play a role in trying to shape how the Democratic Party engages in that way.”

Other lawmakers were more blunt.

“I don’t give a s*** about that,” Sen. Brian Schatz (D-HI) said when the Washington Examiner asked about Hogg.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) pushed party members to continue their resistance against Trump and prove to voters they care about their everyday issues.

“Democrats have got to show some fight. We don’t have as much power as we want, but that’s not the same thing as having no power at all,” Warren said.

“We need to be using every ounce of leverage that we have in Congress or in state government, both to fight back against the Republicans who are handing our government over to the billionaires, and to put our own affirmative arguments out there,” Warren continued.

GERRY CONNOLLY’S DEATH REIGNITES DEMOCRATIC DEBATE OVER AGE

Warren pointed to the reconciliation package that the Senate is trying to muscle through before the July 4 holiday as one measure Democrats should be fighting heavily against, given the potential cuts to Medicaid it could include.

“Right now, Donald Trump is advancing a bill that literally cuts healthcare for 16 million Americans so that a handful of billionaires can get even more tax giveaways,” Warren said. “That is so deeply wrong that if we don’t talk about that morning, noon, and night and show that we are suited up and ready to take on that fight, then we’re missing the chance to tell the American people that there really is hope. And that not everyone has bent the knee to Donald Trump.”

Lauren Green contributed to this report.