David Hogg tried pitching a compromise to the DNC. He was rebuffed.

David Hogg, the Democratic National Committee official who ignited a firestorm inside the party with his pledge to fund primary challenges to “asleep-at-the-wheel” Democrats, privately pitched a compromise to the party head in recent days.

Speaking with DNC Chair Ken Martin, Hogg proposed a so-called “internal firewall” in which he would stay on as vice chair but be barred from accessing any internal DNC information about congressional and state legislative races as long as he was supporting challengers, according to three people familiar with their conversations and granted anonymity to describe them.

Martin shot down the idea, the people said, expressing confidence that he would win the votes at the DNC to pass a rule requiring party officials to remain neutral in primaries — essentially forcing Hogg to drop his primary project or step down.

Jane Kleeb, a Martin ally and another DNC vice chair, said she also spoke with Hogg about his proposed compromise. She called it “nonsense” and argued “it is not the DNC’s job to create a firewall for one officer — it is the officer’s responsibility to create a firewall.

The exchange between Hogg and DNC leaders marked a breakdown in efforts to diffuse controversy surrounding his announcement that a group he co-founded, Leaders We Deserve, would spend $20 million in safe-blue Democratic primaries against incumbent House members. Martin has given Hogg an ultimatum, telling reporters that party officers “can’t be both the referee and also the player at the same time.”

Martin told POLITICO that “party bosses should not be involved in putting their thumb on the scale” and said, “I campaigned on this,” while Hogg, in an interview, stood by his peace offering. He said the DNC “doesn’t really have a role in congressional races, and therefore there shouldn’t be an issue or real conflict.”

But Hogg is not backing down. Instead, he is mounting a charm offensive.

The 25-year-old Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting survivor recently spoke at a fundraiser for state Democrats in Rhode Island. He donated $100,000 to the House Democrats’ campaign arm. He is scrambling behind the scenes to win over Democratic activists and operatives, and he is finding some success.

Even as Hogg has enraged many establishment-oriented Democrats, he is gaining the support of some others on the left, including state party leaders, labor officials and powerful media voices who view him as tapping into a more aggressive approach in the second Donald Trump era.

Hogg has captured the attention of Charlamagne tha God, the influential radio host, who has publicly thrown his weight behind him. He said in an interview that Hogg “is absolutely right — I don’t know why people are acting like he’s not,” and that Democrats “who aren’t willing to fight for democracy in the way that it needs to be fought for, they need to be banished.”

James Carville, the longtime Democratic strategist who once dubbed Hogg a “contemptible little twerp,” went from vehemently disagreeing with Hogg to posting on social media that the “DNC needs him” because “David Hogg fights.” Hogg said that after appearing on a podcast with Carville, he texted the strategist, saying that he respected the work he has done and would “love to connect more.” Carville then called him and soon after took his side.

Hogg is working to pull more Democrats along with him. Speaking at a fundraiser for the Rhode Island Democratic Party a few weeks ago, Hogg said, “We need to show the reason to vote for Democrats isn’t because we’re the less bad of two options. It’s because we’re the best fucking option,” according to a video shared with POLITICO.

Hogg addressed the dispute with the party, saying, “I know that right now there is a movement to try to remove me from the DNC.” The crowd booed in response, in an apparent show of support for Hogg.

His plans to oust some Democratic incumbents — and the uproar he’s triggered — have exposed a painful rift among Democrats as they struggle to rebuild their party. And the messy conflict threatens to drag on for months, putting a spotlight on Democrats’ internal disagreements over generational change and how aggressively to take on Trump.

Martin has described the ultimatum he issued to Hogg, proposing to amend the party’s bylaws to bar DNC officers from getting involved in primary campaigns, as part of an overall reform package that is not aimed at the vice chair. But it would effectively force Hogg to decide between leaving his vice chair post or walling himself off from the primaries launched by his group Leaders We Deserve. The overhaul is expected to come up for a vote this summer.

Even some of Hogg’s allies are skeptical that he’ll be able to defeat Martin’s proposal. “Unfortunately, I do think it’ll pass,” said Jeanna Repass, chair of the Kansas Democratic Party, who argued that Hogg should be grandfathered in “because it really looks like we’re bullying out a young Dem who’s trying to be a change agent.”

Kleeb said that as a Bernie Sanders supporter in 2016, she felt that the party influenced that primary — as leaked emails revealed that many DNC officials derided Sanders’ bid against Hillary Clinton — arguing “that is what we are trying to fix.”

“No quote-unquote charm offensive or media appearance of David,” she said, “will change the fundamental fact of what we are trying to do at the DNC.”

Stuart Appelbaum, a DNC associate chair, said that he and every other DNC officer — except Hogg — signed a “neutrality policy” at a private party retreat in March. As president of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, he said that “meant a big change for me” but that “it is crucial that the Democratic Party” be seen as impartial.

But Hogg does not appear to be budging. He said he will refuse to wall himself off from his group’s work on primaries, as the neutrality rule — if adopted — would require.

“If that’s the rule that they implement, then they’re going to have to vote me out if that’s what they want,” said Hogg. “I would prefer that we come to a deal here.”

Hogg’s group has pledged that it is moving forward with plans to target House Democrats in anywhere from 10 to 50 districts. When he was in Rhode Island for the state party fundraiser last month, Hogg met with progressive legislators and activists to discuss potential primary challenges, according to a person familiar with the conversation.

Asked about the meeting, Hogg said Rhode Island is “not currently” on his group’s list of targets. But, he said, “I can’t write any state off at this point, because we’re looking at all the districts around the country.”