Sanders camp quietly pushes Khanna presidential bid

Top figures from Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign are privately encouraging Ro Khanna to run for president in 2024 if Joe Biden doesn’t seek a second term, giving the California congressman an important stamp of approval from progressives as the party looks to its post-Biden future. 

Jeff Weaver, Sanders’ former presidential campaign manager, and Mark Longabaugh, a senior adviser to Sanders during his 2016 bid, have both urged Khanna to consider a campaign in the event Biden declines to run again, according to a person familiar with their discussions.

Democratic officeholders are reluctant to speak publicly about their ambitions in a potential open race in 2024 out of concern that they could undermine the president, who has said he plans to campaign for a second term if he is in good health. There are also sensitivities surrounding Vice President Kamala Harris, who is atop the list of possible candidates but faces skepticism from some party insiders who fear she cannot win a general election.

But a growing list of Democratic governors, senators and House members are turning their attention to the possibility of a primary in two years that doesn’t include Biden, given the president’s advanced age and dismal approval ratings. Roughly half of Americans don’t expect Biden, now 79, will run for a second term, according to a recent Wall Street Journal poll.

The talks between Khanna and current and former Sanders advisers offer a window into the hushed, behind-the-scenes conversations that Democrats are having in the event that Biden doesn’t seek reelection. They also demonstrate that a key part of Sanders’ brain trust is looking to Khanna, a close ally to the Vermont senator, as his heir apparent.

“I think Ro would be a very effective candidate,” said Longabaugh, who stressed that he was only referring to a scenario in which Biden did not run again in 2024. “This guy has a message that’s very powerful. … Ro is basically saying, ‘Is there a way in which we can reconstruct the economy so that all of the wealth is not just being generated on the East Coast, West Coast, or out of my congressional district?’”

In an interview, Khanna made clear that he had no intention of challenging Biden and expressed strong support for his reelection. But he did not close the door to 2028.

“I’m not running in 2024,” Khanna said. “I fully expect the president to run and intend to support him strongly. If for some reason he didn't, that would be very disappointing, but there are a number of other candidates who I think I could get behind who would make sure that the Democrats beat Donald Trump.”

As for a race beyond that, he said that “after the ’24 cycle will be a time where America will start to look to the future.”

Khanna has long operated like someone interested in running for president. He’s spent considerable time in the early-voting states campaigning with Sanders as a co-chair of his 2020 presidential bid.

Khanna has also leveraged his connections in Silicon Valley to bring technology jobs to the early presidential states. In 2018, Khanna toured historically Black colleges and universities in South Carolina with Rep. Jim Clyburn and later helped establish a partnership between Zoom and Claflin University. During the 2020 presidential cycle, Khanna used his campaign funding to place more than $100,000 worth of print ads in Iowa, which boosted his efforts to create tech jobs in the state, including in rural areas. Khanna also helped deliver a $1 million grant for Iowa State University, as well as scholarships, digital apprenticeships and other investments to the state.

More recently, Khanna has appeared on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” and “Real Time with Bill Maher” to publicize his book, “Dignity in the Digital Age: Making Tech Work for All of Us,” as well as at in-person and virtual events in Pennsylvania, New York and California.

“People aren’t going to early states at this point because they’re not interested,” said Democratic consultant Joe Caiazzo, a veteran of campaigns in the first-in-the-nation primary state of New Hampshire. “It’s crystal-clear that Ro Khanna is a part of the next generation of progressive leadership in America.”

The three-term congressman cuts a unique profile: The 45-year-old is a die-hard liberal who happens to also represent the startup paradise of Silicon Valley. He calls himself a “progressive capitalist” and envisions a future in which America’s eroding democracy is strengthened by spreading well-paying technology jobs across the heartland.

Khanna’s supporters believe that he would begin a presidential race with a significant portion of Sanders’ political infrastructure and likely become a top contender for progressive voters.

“I think he would have tremendous appeal among people who supported Bernie. I do, absolutely, 100 percent,” said Weaver. “He has a thoughtful take on the economy, which I think a lot of working-class people that Democrats have had difficulty reaching would hear.”

Like every other Democratic strategist interviewed for this story, Weaver and Caiazzo stipulated that they were talking about Khanna’s future in the context of Biden not seeking a second term. 

Allies of Khanna, who is the son of Indian immigrants, think he could tap financial support in the Indian American community and appeal to immigrants of all stripes. Indian Americans — one of the fastest-growing immigrant groups in the country — have been working diligently in recent years to increase their political clout, and Khanna has developed close relationships with Indian American leaders.

“Ro has a clear vision of both protecting America’s status as a multiracial democracy and bringing economic opportunity from the coasts to every corner of the country,” said Neil Makhija, executive director of the civic group Indian American Impact. “Since Covid and the changing nature of remote work, an honest, realistic economic message for rural America is possible and the kind of critical message we need from a national leader.”

Khanna’s fans also see another asset — he’s a progressive who does not turn off more establishment and moderate elements of the party. It’s an important quality after 2020, when Democratic officials mobilized to stop Sanders from winning the presidential nomination following his success in early-voting states.

Unlike some other high-profile progressives, Khanna’s style has been less combative and more aimed at building relationships with other parts of the Democratic Party. In perhaps an extreme example, in the 2018 primary, Khanna endorsed both then-Rep. Joe Crowley (D-N.Y.) and the left-wing challenger who defeated him, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

It’s an open question whether Khanna would be able to continue to avoid being a lightning rod under the glare of a presidential campaign.

“His base would be in the progressive wing of the party, but I think his coalition could be bigger than that,” said Longabaugh. “The Democratic Party is a big tent, and I think one of his strengths in a race would be his ability to build that big tent.”

Weaver and Longabaugh would not discuss their conversations with Khanna. Beyond them, a handful of other key figures in Sanders’ orbit hope that, if Biden declines to campaign for a second term, Khanna will run for president in 2024 or in future years.

“I think it would be great to have a President Ro,” said Ben Cohen, the Ben & Jerry’s co-founder who served alongside Khanna as a co-chair for Sanders’ 2020 campaign. “He’s just an honest, sincere guy who really wants what’s best for the majority of Americans.”

Larry Cohen, chair of the Sanders-founded group Our Revolution, and RoseAnn DeMoro, a former national nurses union leader with close ties to Sanders, also spoke highly of Khanna’s qualifications for president.

Ever since Sanders’ second bid for the White House ended in April 2020, the progressive movement has been in search of a future leader. Other potential left-wing candidates in an open 2024 primary could include Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Ocasio-Cortez.

Khanna backs the now-familiar list of progressive goals that Sanders popularized, including Medicare for All, free public college and a $15 minimum wage. Sanders and Khanna have also worked on a number of bills together. In 2019, the two lawmakers spearheaded the passage of a War Powers resolution to end the United States’ involvement in the war in Yemen.

Should the Sanders advisers fail to convince Khanna to look at the White House in 2024, he may seek another job that could elevate his profile in the near term. A person familiar with Khanna’s thinking said he would explore the possibility of a 2024 Senate bid if Dianne Feinstein, California’s 88-year-old incumbent Democratic senator, does not run for reelection.

Khanna’s team went as far as conducting polling in 2021 on a potential Senate primary, including Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) and Reps. Katie Porter (D-Calif.) and Adam Schiff (D-Calif.). The survey found that Khanna would have begun the race as one of the top three candidates, the person said.