South-Carolina
5 years from the ’28 presidential race, a California Democrat keeps popping up in SC
But even that message sounds like the beginnings of a stump speech.
“The central message is that there are a lot of parts of this country where people have not had economic opportunity, where the American dream is slipping away,” Khanna told The Post and Courier in August after touring Emanuel AME Church in downtown Charleston with state Rep. Wendell Gilliard, a local Democrat.
In July, Khanna attended the Charleston kickoff for Gilliard’s state Senate campaign, then headed to Columbia where he met with Christale Spain, the head of the state party, and a group of Black Democratic state legislators.
U.S. Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., (left) with state Rep. Wendell Gilliard, D-Charleston, at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston on Aug. 26, 2023. Khanna came to support Wendell Gilliard in a special election for the state senate in district 42 after State Sen. Marlon Kimpson resigned at the end of the legislative session to take a job on President Joe Biden’s advisory committee for trade policy and negotiations. File/Staff
In August, he was back to attend an AME ministers’ conference in the Charleston area and campaign once again for Gilliard, a fellow supporter of Sanders’ 2020 presidential campaign.
Khanna’s outreach has been dogged, though always focused on tech, said state Rep. Jermaine Johnson, who attended the July 7 meeting with Khanna.
“’Ro’ has texted me. He has called me. We’ve sat down together,” Johnson said.
“I’ll call him right now,” he added, only half joking.
Johnson, who was a major supporter of Andrew Yang in the 2020 primary, said he thinks Khanna is building strong relationships in the state and would make a good candidate, if he runs.
“His forward thinking is something that we need,” Johnson said.
One problem for Khanna and other progressives, especially if South Carolina goes first in 2028, is that voters in the state’s Democratic primary have often favored more-established, moderate candidates.
Sanders received 26 percent of the vote against Hillary Clinton in 2016. In 2020, Sanders and U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren notched a combined 27 percent of the primary vote.
Khanna’s early-and-persistent presence in the state could help overcome that, said Jessica Bright, a Charleston Democratic strategist who ran Sanders’ 2020 campaign in South Carolina.
“It’s easier to support someone that we know and that’s familiar,” she said. Aside from then-U.S. Sen. Barack Obama, she added, “All of the people who have been able to successfully win South Carolina have had some familiarity.”