Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) endorsed progressive Generation Z influencer Kat Abughazeleh in her congressional run in Illinois on Monday, saying she is “the absolute best that the Democratic Party has to offer.”
In the last few months, Khanna, 48, has established himself as a leader for Democrats, endorsing up-and-coming progressives, including Zohran Mamdani, 33, in the New York mayoral race.
Khanna, who co-chaired Sen. Bernie Sanders’s (I-VT) 2020 presidential campaign, has addressed the generational divide in the Democratic Party, telling voters that the “old guard needs to go.”
“I’m here to say that a new Democratic Party, a reborn Democratic Party, a populist Democratic Party, a multiracial Democratic Party, a Democratic Party that centers the working and middle class, a Democratic Party that looks like the future, is a Democratic Party that can lead us back to victory and lead us to a better America,” Khanna said in a statement.
Of New York’s Democratic mayoral candidate, Khanna said he does not need to agree with Mamdani on every issue but that the Democratic Party as a whole needs to “center” more on the working class, raise wages, and have a more economically populist agenda.
“He spent a lot of time talking about the cost of living in New York, in this country, and how we address it,” Khanna said at the Hill Nation Summit on July 17.
On Sunday, Khanna appeared on NBC News’s Meet the Press and said the Epstein files will be a winning issue for Democratic candidates in the 2026 midterm elections.
“This is about trust in government,” Khanna said.
Following his appearance, Khanna endorsed Abughazeleh, 26, for her congressional run in Illinois’ 9th Congressional District, which covers Chicago’s northwest suburbs, hoping to replace incumbent Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL).
“I’m thrilled to endorse Kat Abughazeleh,” Khanna said in a statement. “I look forward to working with Kat when she’s elected, so that together we can defeat Donald Trump’s inhumane agenda and focus on the most pressing issues facing working people.”
The 2026 election is an opportunity for the Democratic Party to gain more information on Gen Z voters, Khanna said. While some newer voters in the party support a more moderate direction, others have echoed Khanna’s populist sentiment.
In the 2024 presidential election, former Vice President Kamala Harris was up 4 percentage points with voters ages 18-29. However, by gender, 7% fewer young women and 14% fewer young men voted for the Democratic nominee compared to 2020, according to research from Tufts University.
Young male voters were a large contributor to Trump’s 2024 win. Now, Democratic lawmakers, including Gov. Wes Moore (D-MD), hope to better understand this voter demographic so that the Democratic Party can “win them back.”
At the Voters of Tomorrow Summit for Young Progressives on Friday, Khanna echoed his goals for a more transparent and reliable Democratic Party, hoping to pull in younger voters.
“I’ll end with this clear point: The old guard needs to go,” Khanna said. “The old ways have not been working. This party needs a new rebirth. This party needs a rebirth to stand for human rights. This party needs a rebirth to stand for the working class. This party needs a rebirth to stand for the people over the donor class.”
The average age of members in the House is 57.5 years, down from 57.9 in the 118th Congress. In the Senate, the average age is 64.7 years, down from 65.3. Generation X, born between 1965 and 1980, makes up 41% of the House, the largest generation in Congress, according to a Pew Research Study conducted in January.
The median age for Democratic freshman representatives is 50.2 years, while that of freshman Republicans is 51.7 years.
However, from a 2023 poll, 87% of people believe there should be term limits for lawmakers, while 79% believe there should be an age limit for elected officials.
Before then-President Joe Biden dropped out of the 2024 presidential race, 86% of people believed he was too old to run again, and 59% said both he and Trump were too old to hold office, according to an ABC News poll conducted in 2024.
However, with the newest generation of voters, there’s a 6-point penalty for being an 80-year-old candidate, compared to being a 30-year-old one, according to a study conducted by Jennifer Wolak, a professor at Michigan State University.
In the same study, it was found that younger voters are more inclined to favor younger candidates due to a perceived connection or understanding of their generation’s issues.
While Khanna has not decided if he is going to take a jab at a presidential run in 2028, he has traveled to South Carolina to engage with black voters and figure out what issues they want the Democratic Party to address.
“It’s not just about losing votes. … What is our agenda?” Khanna said. “What is our agenda for [black] people to build wealth? What is our agenda for them to participate in the modern economy? I think we have not had a compelling enough economic vision for the country, including for the black community.”
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Khanna called for Democrats to have a better understanding of their voters and to stand up to policies rather than “running away.”
“It’s time to take back our party and then to take back our country,” Khanna said.