South Bay Rep.'s Expenditures Stir Prez Bid Buzz: Report

SANTA CLARA, CA — A South Bay congressman who has already confirmed he’s considering a possible 2024 Senate bid appears to be testing the waters for a possible presidential run.

Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Santa Clara) has hired consultants with deep ties to early primary and caucus states, fueling speculation he may be weighing a White House bid, Politico reports.

Consultants with experience in New Hampshire and Nevada politics are among those Khanna has retained.

The staunch South Bay progressive also retained an Iowa firm before the Democratic National Party moved to strip the Hawkeye State of its status as the nation’s first state to vote on presidential candidates.

Khanna dismissed the suggestion that he’s considering a presidential bid.

“I’ll rule that out definitively,” he told Politico.

No major Democrat has yet to announce a challenge President Joe Biden, who has said he intends to run for reelection in 2024.

Khanna in November pledged not to challenge President Joe Biden, also a Democrat, in a Los Angeles Times interview.

“President Biden will enjoy strong support from many progressives when he runs for reelection,” Khanna told the news outlet.

“He will certainly have mine.”

Khanna’s name more frequently surfaces in connection with the 2024 U.S. Senate race.

Democratic incumbent Diane Feinstein, 89, has not yet decided whether to seek reelection.

Feinstein was first elected to the Senate in 1992 and previously served as San Francisco’s mayor.
But her age, and accounts from staffers and Senate colleagues, including several Democrats, raised questions about whether she is mentally fit to serve, The San Francisco Chronicle reports.

Rep. Katie Porter (D-Irvine) last week became the first Democrat to announce a 2024 Senate bid.

Others rumored to be mulling a 2024 Senate bid include Barbara Lee (D-Oakland) and Adam Schiff (D-Burbank).

Read more in Politico