The quiet grooming of Rep. Ro Khanna for a 2028 presidential bid by Biden’s former chief of staff signals more than routine party positioning—it’s a deliberate effort to install a coastal progressive with a long record of pushing the most aggressive gun-control agenda in Congress. Khanna has repeatedly co-sponsored assault-weapons bans, universal background-check expansions, and red-flag laws that bypass due process, all while representing Silicon Valley donors who view the Second Amendment as an outdated nuisance rather than a fundamental check on government power. By elevating him now, Democratic power brokers are telegraphing that the post-Biden era will double down on the same failed policies that turned California into a cautionary tale of rising crime in gun-restricted cities and law-abiding citizens left defenseless.

For the 2A community, this development is a flashing warning light. Khanna’s backers have already tested the same messaging playbook with Mamdani and Becerra—framing gun ownership as a public-health crisis rather than a constitutional right—and they intend to nationalize it. Expect renewed pushes for magazine bans, “ghost gun” crackdowns, and ATF rule-making by fiat, all packaged as moderate reforms while quietly eroding the protections affirmed in Bruen. Pro-Second Amendment voters should treat this early coronation as an opportunity to organize early, highlight the real-world consequences of California-style restrictions, and remind swing-state Democrats that another round of confiscatory policies will carry a steep electoral price.