Ro Khanna Aides Push Him to Run for President if Biden Fades

Aides to Silicon Valley Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) are pressing him to run for president in 2024 if President Joe Biden does not seek reelection, according to Politico.

The former Obama administration official-turned-congressman, who speaks to Fox News and was the only Democrat to emerge from the “Twitter Files” scandal looking like an advocate for freedom of speech, has been earning positive press from both side of the aisle in recent weeks.

He would also have the backing of Silicon Valley giants, including Twitter owner Elon Musk, who is a fan:

Ro Khanna is great

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 3, 2022

Politico reported Thursday:

Khanna has retained consultants who are veterans of New Hampshire’s primary and Nevada’s. He paid one Iowa firm as well, before the Democratic National Committee made plans to revoke the state’s first-in-the-nation status. He’s also begun to more forcefully draw contrasts with potential political rivals, chief among them transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.

Those close to Khanna say he’s 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 decided not to.

“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 has denied being interested in running for president, though he may run for U.S. Senate in California in 2024. Several Democrats are eying the seat held by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), whom many expect to retire.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the new biography, Rhoda: ‘Comrade Kadalie, You Are Out of Order’. He is also the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.