Ro Khanna is taking his economic message on the road. Will it lead to the White House?

U.S. Rep. Ro Khanna visits Ultium Cells, an electric vehicle battery manufacturing plant in Warren, Ohio. Garrett Downs | CNBC PENNSYLVANIA, OHIO and MICHIGAN — U.S. Rep. Ro Khanna was riding shotgun in a black Chevrolet Suburban hurtling down an Ohio highway. His mind was on the economy . "I do think I have the right economic vision for this country," Khanna, D-Calif., told CNBC, taking a break from answering one of the hundreds of text messages he receives each day. "The question is just whether I will get behind someone who can help adopt it, or whether I'll do it myself." The Silicon Valley representative had just left Magnet, a nonprofit industrial consulting firm and talent incubator and a stop on his three-day tour through the Rust Belt. He was speaking to the question that many were asking here: whether the former co-chair of the 2020 Bernie Sanders campaign would mount his own bid for the White House in 2028 . "It's a natural question, and the truth is that I've said I'm going to consider it after the midterms," he said when CNBC asked whether he ever gets tired of reporters asking him if he's running. The question has become more natural lately. Khanna, a progressive long seen as ambitious in Washington circles, has found himself joining the list of potential 2028 hopefuls in the eyes of oddsmakers after his successful push to release the Epstein files , which exploded into the biggest news story of 2025. …