Rep Ro Khanna tees up 2028 rivalry during pointed speech in JD Vance’s home state

During remarks in Vice President JD Vance’s home state, Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., contrasted his vision for America’s “new economic patriotism” with the future of the Republican Party with Vance at the helm. 

Considered a 2028 presidential contender in an already crowded field, Khanna’s remarks at the City Club of Cleveland seemed to frame an early rivalry between the rising political leaders from opposite ends of the ideological spectrum. 

While Democratic leaders, who are likely mulling their own presidential runs, have seized opportunities to contrast President Donald Trump’s agenda, Khanna took aim at Trump’s likely successor during remarks on Monday. 

“Vance and Musk want to completely get government out of the way to usher in a new Gilded Age, so that corporate elites, particularly tech titans, can take the wheel,” Khanna said. “I say it’s time to turn the tables. It’s time to put Silicon Valley in the service of America, not America in the service of Silicon Valley. That’s why today I’m calling for a new economic patriotism. What we need in this country is a new economic patriotism, not a second Gilded Age.”

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Khanna, who was born in Philadelphia, touted his ties to Ohio during remarks in Cleveland, where his wife was born and raised. Khanna said Trump and Vance campaigned on restoring economic prosperity to industrial American cities but have presented “no hopeful vision, no real solutions” for manufacturing cities in the Rust Belt like Johnstown, Pennsylvania, and Warren, Ohio. Now representing California’s Silicon Valley, Khanna called for “fusing Silicon Valley’s ingenuity with Ohio’s industrial might.”

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Ohio GOP Chairman Alex Triantafilou responded to Khanna’s remarks in a statement to Fox News Digital: “Ro Khanna is a far-left socialist from one of the wealthiest and wokest congressional districts in America. He served as an official surrogate for both Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. This speech is nothing but another desperate plea for attention from another elitist politician wholly out-of-touch with Middle Class voters like those in Ohio.”

“His remarks remind Americans that California extremist liberals like Ro Khanna are responsible for enabling open borders, mass illegal immigration, and the out-of-control government spending of the Biden regime. He should’ve stayed in California.”

While Khanna did attack Trump’s tariffs and “propaganda,” Khanna was careful to target the joint “Trump and Vance” agenda, critique Vance individually and increasingly connect Vance to Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Khanna tied Vance to anti-democracy ideology, his “old” ideas for the United States and his tax breaks for Silicon Valley, which Khanna said they don’t need. 

With the U.S. House of Representatives on recess this week, Khanna is crisscrossing the country and visiting communities tied to his potential political opponent. Khanna visited the manufacturing town of Warren, Ohio, on Sunday, which is across the state from where Vance was born and raised in Middletown. 

Khanna will continue his Democratic rebuttal of the future of the Republican Party at Yale Law School on Tuesday, where both Khanna and Vance are graduates. 

“I’m going actually to Yale tomorrow, where JD and I both went to law school, to talk about freedom of speech because he’s been lecturing Europe about freedom of speech while sitting silently while students are snatched off campus and deported without due process.”

During the Munich Security Conference in February, Vance said free speech “is in retreat” across Europe. On Monday, Khanna called for Americans to stand up and speak out against “deportations without due process” – referring to anti-Israel protesters and illegal immigrants who have been targeted by the Trump administration. 

Khanna and Vance have already had their fair share of sparring on social media. Earlier this year, Vance accused the California congressman of acting like a “whiny” child after Khanna said a former DOGE employee should apologize for racially charged social media posts. Khanna told Vance the now-resigned staffer should apologize “for the sake of both of our kids,” who are both of Indian dissent. 

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Vance’s office did not provide a comment when requested by Fox News Digital.