Allies of California Rep. Ro Khanna Launch 'Run Ro' Draft Committee to Lay Groundwork for a 2028 Presidential Bid
Allies of Rep. Ro Khanna, a California Democrat, have launched a draft committee called "Run Ro" to lay the groundwork for a possible run for the 2028 Democratic presidential nomination. The committee is co-chaired by former Rep. Jamaal Bowman of New York and progressive strategist Nomiki Konst, and it can raise money and build support while Khanna himself continues to weigh a White House bid.
Khanna has not announced a presidential bid, and no candidate has yet formally entered the race for the 2028 Democratic nomination. "By launching now, we are trying to ensure that the presidential primary debate is framed from a progressive populist perspective," Konst told NBC News. Bowman said the early organizing effort draws on lessons from past primaries and is meant to keep progressive candidates from falling behind better-funded establishment contenders.
Khanna welcomed the effort. "I'm honored that people are encouraging me to run on a platform of Medicare for All, ending foreign wars and taxing the billionaires," he said. "We need America's Next New Deal. Whether I run or support someone else is something I will decide with my family after the holidays."
According to finance filings reviewed by Politico, Khanna has spent at least $600,000 from his congressional campaign account this cycle in the early primary states of Nevada, South Carolina and New Hampshire, including travel and donations to local churches and political groups. He has made roughly a dozen trips to those states over the past two years, and his team on the ground includes Shannon Jackson, who served as Bernie Sanders's New Hampshire state director, and Aaron Greene in South Carolina. On a single day, September 17, he spent nearly $40,000 acquiring lists from two New Hampshire congressional campaigns.
Khanna, a five-term congressman representing California's 17th District in Silicon Valley, co-chaired Bernie Sanders's 2020 presidential campaign. The draft committee's launch comes days after midterm elections that returned Democrats to power in both the House and the Senate, intensifying the party's search for its 2028 presidential standard-bearer.
(Source: NBC News)
Source: NBC News
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：加州联邦众议员罗·卡纳官方肖像。美国众议院，公共领域，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Photo: Official portrait of Rep. Ro Khanna of California. U.S. House of Representatives, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
