Could this politician from California be the future of the Democratic Party? | Opinion
In the ever-changing jumble of names, titles and organizations that plagues the capitol, I’ll be honest that I couldn’t have told you who or what a “Ro Khanna” was before perhaps Feb. 5 of this year, when noted oligarch and overgrown schoolyard bully, Elon Musk, tweeted “Don’t be a (expletive)” at him.
The heated exchange came after Khanna, the state representative from California’s Silicon Valley, missed a vote in the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee to subpoena Musk over his ongoing, furtive changes to the federal government. (Oh, how clueless we were just three months ago!) Khanna had publicly said that, if he’d had enough notice, he would have voted yes, triggering Musk’s tantrum.
And while that was certainly an unconventional way to come on the radar, Khanna has since become a recurring character in early conversations, both overheard and participated in, about who the Democrats might run against the Republican Party in three years.
(Please forgive us wonks for floating the topic so early; we are also annoyed with ourselves and wish we could stop.)
At The Bee’s invitation, Khanna recently sat down with me and California Opinion Editor Marcos Breton to discuss a wide range of topics. Nothing was off the record — a courtesy rarely given to journalists these days.
My first impression of Khanna was to notice his undeniable charisma. It’s something politicians either have or don’t — and Khanna certainly has it — though I’m not sure yet if it’s something that will translate from an in-person meeting to soundbites through a screen.
He was relaxed and easy in conversation, serious when appropriate and clearly intelligent about a wide variety of topics. He spoke from memory, with no notes to aid him and no prompting from the one team member he brought to the meeting. He fielded questions from the board with ease, from housing and homelessness to the economy, Medicaid and even childcare costs.
Could I see this man as president someday? Yes, I could.
Would he admit he was in the early stages of a campaign? No, he would not.
Khanna’s greatest asset is perhaps his youth (he’s 48), in a party where the average age of Democratic leadership in the House is a death-defying 72 years old.
“The Baby Boomers love to serve,” Khanna said. “And I get it, but you know, there should have been a transition a few years ago….I think there is a new generation in Congress. My view is… you are going to see a new generation of leaders emerging in the party. It’s sort of the last hurrah for the old guard.”
So, too, would his vocal enthusiasm for taxing high-income earners be popular on the presidential campaign trail, should he pursue it.
“The argument is pretty simple: You can’t be providing tax breaks for billionaires while gutting Medicaid,” Khanna said. “(Democrats) are the party that’s going to uphold the Constitution (and the) rule of law, but also make sure that people don’t lose their Medicaid or lose their Social Security, all for tax breaks for the billionaires. We need to have a more affirmative economic message of what we’re going to do, but for right now, people are just angry at what they see as an assault on basic social protections.”
“People see the costs of child care, of health care, of college and they’re struggling to get by. I don’t think we addressed that well enough, empathetically enough, with a vision of how to solve it.”
Khanna’s ready and concise answers made for a compelling conversation, and reminded me of a quote from one of my favorite movies, 1995’s “The American President”: “(People) want leadership. They’re so thirsty for it they’ll crawl through the desert toward a mirage, and when they discover there’s no water, they’ll drink the sand.”
Life is never so neatly tied up in 129 minutes, but the point still rings true some 30 years later: The American people are truly desperate for leadership. We want it so much that we have once again attached ourselves to a caricature of a strongman — and now I fear we are drinking the sand.
Call me naive, but the last time this country felt united was during the Obama campaign, when hope and optimism were the order of the day. Perhaps it’s no coincidence that Khanna worked in the Obama Administration. Americans crave a youthful, energetic, smart leader to unite behind once more. I fear the lack of one will doom us to an impossible situation, like trying to climb out of a sand pit.
I don’t know if Khanna is the leader America needs, because no one is going to be perfect for the role. But as a child of immigrants, a man who can move and speak just as easily in a crowd of billionaires as he does among the working class, follows through on his promises to fairly tax high income earners, protect social programs, rebuilds America’s factory towns and shows the Democratic Party that its future lies not in staid gerontocracy, but in idealism and hope? He at least has a fighting chance.
This story was originally published May 31, 2025 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Could this politician from California be the future of the Democratic Party? | Opinion."
