Ro Khanna may run for White House: report
INDIAN-AMERICAN Congressman Ro Khanna has said that he is weighing a Senate bid in California, sparking speculation among Democrats in several key US states that he may be eyeing to run for the White House in the future, according to a media report.
Those close to Khanna, 46, say he is keeping his options open ahead of a potential presidential run in 2028 or beyond. But others in his orbit are talking about an even more compressed timeline: running in 2024 if President Joe Biden, 80, decided not to, according to Politico.
‘I think he would be a great United States senator,' said Mark Longabaugh, a Democratic strategist whose firm did media consulting for Khanna last year. ‘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.'
Khanna, who is a US representative from California's 17th congressional district since 2017, for his part, denied in an interview that he would go for the White House should Biden ultimately forgo a reelection bid, saying ‘I'll rule that out definitively.' He has also said he would support Biden if he were to run.
More immediately, he has begun talking openly about a possible run for the Senate as his next step, Politico reported.
‘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,' Khanna told Politico of a Senate bid.
But recent moves have sparked a new round of speculation that the California congressman continues to have his eye on a higher office.
Some consultants whose firms have worked with the Congressman
in early primary states say they have a different impression about the extent of his political ambitions.
‘I would just have to assume that while Ro has been incredibly interested in the great state of Iowa for a number of reasons, that perhaps it had to do with laying the groundwork for any potential future national bids,' said Stacey Walker, the former Iowa campaign co-chair for Sanders and founder of the Iowa-based firm Sage Strategies, which Khanna paid $8,000 last year.