By Mackenzie Hawkins
Ro Khanna was first elected as a whiz kid evangelist for Silicon Valley, the heart of his congressional district and home to Apple, Cisco and Intel’s headquarters. Today, though, the Californian’s stumping for a different crowd.
The average voter in Ohio might have no idea who he is — he’s working on that — but Khanna’s angling to be the Democratic Party’s forward-facing industrialist, revitalizing manufacturing across forgotten swaths of the heartland all with an eye towards higher office.
With the public souring on Big Tech and President Joe Biden popularizing a “Made in America” agenda, Khanna is seizing on last year’s Chips Act, a massive bipartisan achievement that dedicates around $50 billion to making computer chips at home to reverse decades of production in Asia. The Bernie Sanders acolyte wants to replicate that formula in sectors like textiles, steel and offshore wind, pitching a “new economic patriotism” that he estimates will cost $2 trillion over 10 years.
Turning a bumper-sticker slogan into actual policy from a divided Congress may prove to be a near-impossible task. And yet Khanna, despite acknowledging that he lacks buy-in from his colleagues, seems undeterred. His visits to the Rust Belt — as one of the wealthiest House members representing its wealthiest constituency — have been met with a skeptical — but curious — enthusiasm.
That could put him in a pretty good position to, say, run for president — but for the fact that Biden, 80, seems headed into 2024 eager for re-election, leaving Khanna, 46, among a crowd of young Democrats who will have to wait. He’ll make a decision on California’s open Senate seat by April. As for 2028, Khanna isn’t shy. “They say Bill Clinton showed up in New Hampshire in 1980,” he said. Khanna showed up in 2018.
In the meantime, he’s sticking to an idea that could distinguish him as Democrats look to their bench to define the future of the party….
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