Ro Khanna on a 2028 presidential run and taking on tech billionaires : NPR’s Newsmakers : NPR

Fresh off a tour through his birthplace of Pennsylvania, Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., said he is “thinking seriously” about running for president in 2028 — a race he called a “breaking point in America” that could lead to a destructive revolution or a new economic order.

“If we don’t do something dramatically different, we may break,” 49-year-old Khanna told Steve Inskeep in an interview for NPR’s Newsmakers video podcast. “I’m the nice guy. I just want a new social contract. Have you met these folks in their 30s? They want pitchforks and torches. They want your scalps … politically.”

The California lawmaker — who acknowledged he sits around 2% in the Democratic presidential polls — does not have the name recognition of some other contenders, including his fellow Californians: former Vice President Kamala Harris and Gov. Gavin Newsom. He has, however, steadily raised his profile through years of action on issues ranging from the Epstein files to a wealth tax. And his possible bid for president comes as the Democratic Party’s center and left-wing candidates battle over ideological differences within the party.

Khanna said Democrats need to nominate a progressive who will usher in “America’s next New Deal” as the country’s technological revolution enriches a select few and risks destabilizing the country’s labor force.

“These folks would have been the conquerors in a different era. They kind of think of themselves as above you and I,” Khanna said of tech billionaires Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg and Peter Thiel. “And when I’m actually most inclined to run, I think, ‘I know these people.’ I understand the economic future, and I will have the guts to stand up to them.”

After recent primary wins by democratic socialist candidates in New York, Colorado and Michigan, President Trump has taken to labeling all democrats “communists.” NPR’s Steve Inskeep asked Khanna whether he worries that such rhetoric might stick and hurt his party’s prospects in the midterm and general elections.