Rep. Ro Khanna, who’s turning into an even bigger participant on the nationwide political stage, has some ideas on the 2024 election.
After contemplating a run himself, he endorsed Rep. Barbara Lee within the hard-fought U.S. Senate primary over fellow Democratic Reps. Katie Porter and Adam Schiff. He’s a co-chairperson of her marketing campaign and calls her a “hero and an unimaginable voice” on progressive priorities.
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The Fremont Democrat stated the explanation Lee isn’t doing higher, a minimum of within the polls, is as a result of she’s being vastly outspent. If the marketing campaign cash have been even, he stated he has “little question” she would make the highest two within the March 5 major and advance to November.
“She’s an underdog. She is aware of that,” Khanna stated in a Zoom dialog at present with CalMatters reporters and editors.
However he stated Lee nonetheless has a shot as she gathers extra assist, together with from celebrities like John Legend. If Lee doesn’t advance, however Porter and Schiff do, Khanna stated he’ll make an endorsement resolution after that.
On the election extra broadly, Khanna sees it taking part in out on two completely different paths: The presidential race might be determined, as normal, by Pennsylvania and different swing states. However management of Congress will undergo California and New York, the place Republicans flipped seats to win again the Home in 2022.
A Democrat prevailed in Tuesday’s special election to interchange the disgraced George Santos in New York, that means that the Republican majority will shrink to six. And Khanna stated he believes Democrats can flip two or three U.S. Home seats in California this year, and might be campaigning in these key races.
On the presidential race, Khanna campaigned for President Joe Biden in New Hampshire, regardless that he has been crucial of the president for not calling for a everlasting ceasefire within the Gaza conflict. Whereas Khanna stated he’s “deeply saddened” by the “humanitarian disaster,” it’s a “no-brainer” to enthusiastically again Biden over former President Donald Trump.
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Khanna stated whereas he needs Biden would additionally assist Medicare for All and free faculty, the president is a “bridge to a extra progressive future.” Requested whether or not that bridge is getting too outdated and creaky, Khanna stated that in his current conversations, Biden was “very educated” and “absolutely mentally sharp.”
However Khanna acknowledged that public notion on the age concern issues as a lot as the fact. “It’s going to be a hard-fought marketing campaign,” he stated.
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