California Rep. Ro Khanna passes on Senate run and backs liberal icon Barbara Lee over Reps. Katie Porter and Adam Schiff: 'She stood up so strongly against the war in Iraq'

Ro Khanna on Sunday announced that he's backing Rep. Barbara Lee in the 2024 California Senate race.
The progressive congressman is endorsing Lee over fellow Democratic Reps. Katie Porter and Adam Schiff.
Khanna during his announcement said that Lee would bring a "unique voice" to the upper chamber.

Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna — a prominent progressive who was thought to be a potential candidate in the 2024 California Senate race — on Sunday said he isn't entering the contest to replace retiring Sen. Dianne Feinstein and would instead throw his support behind liberal icon and longtime Rep. Barbara Lee.

"I have concluded that despite a lot of enthusiasm from Bernie folks, the best place, the most exciting place … for me to serve as a progressive is in the House of Representatives," he said during an appearance on CNN's "This Week."

"I'm honored to be co-chairing Barbara Lee's campaign for the Senate and endorsing her today. We need a strong antiwar senator and she will play that role," he continued.

Feinstein, 89, is retiring next year after first being elected to the Senate in a 1992 special election.

In endorsing Lee, a fellow lawmaker from the San Francisco Bay Area, Khanna praised her antiwar record and said that the congresswoman would be a "unique voice" in the upper chamber.

Khanna's move also means that he is supporting Lee over fellow Democratic Reps. Katie Porter and Adam Schiff — two colleagues who have a national following and are currently the frontrunners in the party primary.

The congressman, a national co-chair of Sen. Bernie Sanders' 2020 presidential campaign — said during the CNN interview that he had respect for both Porter and Schiff, but heralded Lee's nearly-25-year tenure in Congress.

"Barbara Lee is a unique voice," Khanna said. "She was a lone vote against the endless war in Afghanistan. She stood up so strongly against the war in Iraq. She worked with me in trying to stop the war in Yemen and the War Powers Resolution."

"And frankly, representation matters. We don't have a single African-American woman in the United States Senate. She would fill that role. She'll be the only candidate from Northern California and she's going to, I think, consolidate a lot of progressives. The other two are formidable candidates, but I think Barbara is going to be very, very strong," he added.

Lee, who announced her campaign last month, is a former chair of the Congressional Black Caucus and a former co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus.

Under the primary system in California, every candidate in the Senate race will run together on the same ballot, with the top-two vote-getters emerging to compete in the general election, regardless of their political party.

If Lee wins the general election in the Golden State, where no Republican has won a Senate race since 1988, she would become only the third Black female senator in US history.

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