USA (Commonwealth Union)_ According to a media source, Indian-American Congressman Ro Khanna has stated that he is considering a Senate race in California, creating speculation among Democrats in several important US states that he may be considering a White House bid in the future.
According to 46-year-old congressman Khanna’s close sources, he is considering a future presidential candidacy in 2028 or beyond. According to media sources, others in his entourage are discussing an even more constricted timeline, that is, running for president in 2024 if 80-year-old President Joe Biden decides not to.
According to Mark Longabaugh, a Democratic strategist whose company provided media advice for Khanna last year, he would be an excellent United States senator. He added, “But I also think, should Biden decide not to run, I think he’s a very plausible candidate for president of the United States. So I think that those decisions are yet to be made.” However, during an interview, Khanna, who has represented California’s 17th congressional district since 2017, refused that he would run for president if Biden finally decided not to seek reelection. He said, “I’ll rule that out definitively” and added that he would back Biden if he ran for president.
However, media reports say that he has started to openly discuss a future run for the Senate as his next move. Speaking of a Senate bid, Khanna said, “There are a lot of Bernie [Sanders] supporters and progressives who have reached out to me to encourage me to look at the race and what I’ve told them is I will do so over the next few months”. However, his recent actions have aroused new concern among Democrats in several major states that the California congressman still has his sights set on a higher post. Further, several consultants whose businesses have collaborated with the congressman in early primary states have a different opinion on the scope of his political goals.
According to Stacey Walker, the former Iowa campaign co-chair for Sanders and head of the Iowa-based business Sage Strategies, to which Khanna paid USD 8,000 last year, Khanna’s interest in the great state of Iowa may have had something to do with setting the framework for any prospective future national efforts. She added that if President Biden did not run for reelection, his name would have to be among the leading candidates. Just prior to and throughout the 2022 election season, Khanna distributed funds outside of his Silicon Valley district and even beyond his future Senate region.
Last year, he gave USD 22,000 to Shannon Jackson, Sanders’ former New Hampshire state director; USD 25,000 to Our Revolution for digital advertising, the Sanders-founded progressive group; and USD 8,000 to each Nevada and Iowa political business. Walker stated that the payment to the Iowa company was for assistance in organizing meetings with state labor leaders. Jackson, who is close to Sanders, stated that he has been assisting Khanna in establishing contacts with Sanders supporters nationwide and in areas like New Hampshire. He stated that Khanna will not run for office in 2024, but rather in the future. According to him, he is one of the progressives who can add to Bernie’s legacy in the future.
In the meantime, Khanna stated that his contributions to the Nevada company were intended to develop support in the Latino population across the country for a new economic patriotism, centered on the Southwest. Khanna hails from a Punjabi Hindu family in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His parents are native of Punjab who moved to the United States. Khanna worked as a Lecturer in the Department of Economics at Stanford University and an Adjunct Professor at Santa Clara Law School before his political career.
