US Congressman Ro Khanna weighs 2028 White House run
New York: Indian-American Congressman Ro Khanna has left open the possibility of running for US president in 2028, saying the decision would involve his family but that he intends to play a part in the debate over America’s future.
Asked directly by former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd whether he was thinking of running, Khanna said about 20 Democrats were considering it and perhaps 10 or 12 would enter the race.
“It’s a family decision,” he said during their discussion at the Asia Society. “Whether I decide to run or support someone who runs, I, I’m gonna be very involved in the conversation.”
Khanna said running nationally was difficult, with most candidates in a crowded field certain to lose. He described the 2028 election as a choice over whether the United States would embrace a diverse society or turn inward.
“I certainly wanna be part of that conversation,” he said. Khanna argued that Democrats would need an economic program reaching communities that had lost industrial jobs. Voters had to see a future for themselves and their children, he said, before appeals to national ideals would carry force.
He linked that argument to immigration. Politicians had blamed immigrants for factory closures and failed economic policies, Khanna said. A better response would be to bring investment and jobs to places that felt excluded from the gains of the new economy.
Khanna also spoke about the Indian roots of his political outlook. His grandfather, he said, was jailed by the British in the 1930s and 1940s for his part in Mahatma Gandhi’s independence movement. That family history gave him an early sense that politics could change lives.
He was born in Philadelphia to parents who had immigrated from India. As a student in Chicago, he knocked on doors for a state Senate candidate who later became President Barack Obama. Khanna recalled telling young people who ask how to work for a president to find someone at school who might reach the White House 15 years later and campaign for that person.
Much of his exchange with Rudd centred on what kind of country the next president should lead. Khanna called for economic opportunities across the United States, a stronger place for workers in decisions about artificial intelligence and a foreign policy that could regain the trust of other countries.
He said America’s strength lay partly in its ability to bring together people with different histories. But he argued that making the case for a diverse democracy required addressing the economic insecurity that had taken hold in former industrial communities.
Khanna represents a California district that includes part of Silicon Valley. His remarks on a possible 2028 campaign came during a wider discussion of technology, US-China relations, immigration and the direction of American foreign policy.
The next US presidential election is scheduled for November 2028.