Ro Khanna endorses Barbara Lee's Senate campaign, announces he won’t run

Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., said Sunday that he won’t run for the Senate seat of retiring Sen. Dianne Feinstein, and will endorse Rep. Barbara Lee instead.

“I have concluded that, despite a lot of enthusiasm from [Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.] folks, the best place, the most exciting place, action place, fit place, for me to serve as a progressive is in the House of Representatives,” Khanna said in an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

The progressive lawmaker said he will be co-chairing Lee’s campaign, adding, “We need a strong anti-war senator, and she will play that role.”

After three decades in the Senate, Feinstein, 89, said earlier this year that she would be retiring from Congress at the end of 2024.

California Democratic Reps. Katie Porter and Adam Schiff announced in January that they’re running, joining what’s expected to be a crowded Democratic primary race for Feinstein’s seat. That same month, Khanna told Politico that he was also considering a Senate bid.

Lee, who officially announced her Senate campaign last month, has served in the House since 1998 and previously served in both California’s state Senate and Assembly. She’s currently the co-chair of the Steering and Policy Committee.

Lee also previously served as chair of the Congressional Black Caucus and co-chaired the Congressional Progressive Caucus. She has a longtime history of speaking out about the need for Congress to revisit the authorization for the use of military force that lawmakers passed in the aftermath of 9/11 that presidents have used since as the legal basis for launching military operations.

Khanna nodded to Lee having a “unique voice” by being “the lone vote against the endless war in Afghanistan.”

“She stood up so strongly against the war in Iraq,” Khanna said. “She worked with me in trying to stop the war in Yemen, the War Powers Resolution. And frankly, Jake, representation matters.”

Khanna also noted that there isn’t “a single African American woman” in the Senate: “She would fill that role. She will be the only candidate from Northern California, and she’s going to, I think, consolidate a lot of progressives.”