09/06/2026
Former President Joe Biden’s first White House chief of staff has provided assistance to a possible 2028 progressive dark horse.
According to Politico, veteran strategist Ron Klain, a prominent player in Democratic Party politics for decades, has thrown his considerable weight behind Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna of California, a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus.
More specifically, three sources confirmed that Klain “has been using his personal time to advise” Khanna.
Politico also learned that the former Biden official worked on debate prep with Democratic Mayor Zohran Mamdani of New York beginning in July 2025.
From the record of his activities, then, Klain has gravitated toward progressive candidates since leaving Biden’s White House.
Even as a member of the Biden administration, the former chief of staff developed a reputation for sympathizing with far-left Democrats.
In fact, even in 2022, critics charged Klain with cozying up to the Congressional Progressive Caucus, according to The Washington Post.
In addition to leftists sympathies, however, Klain’s support for Khanna might have another explanation.
“I find being on Twitter useful as an early-warning system of things that, to be honest, reporters are talking about,” the then-chief of staff said in 2022. “So, a little way to kind of get a sense of what’s out there. What our activists are talking about. What our critics are talking about. What Republicans are talking about.”
On Twitter, now known as X, many users associate Khanna with Republican Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky.
Last year, Massie and Khanna teamed up to force President Donald Trump’s administration to release files pertaining to the late s*x offender and suspected s*x trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, which the president had appeared reluctant to do.
That effort, for instance, brought Khanna to the attention of former Trump-supporting podcasters such as Shawn Ryan.
Then, last month, Trump-backed Ed Gallrein defeated Massie in an expensive and hotly contested GOP primary.
Still, many of the president’s right-wing and libertarian critics regard Massie as a martyr. And that makes Khanna an unusually sympathetic figure in their eyes.
Politico’s sources, however, did not indicate whether Khanna’s potential crossover appeal as a Democratic presidential candidate attracted Klain.
Currently Airbnb’s chief legal officer, Klain, 64, served as a law clerk to Supreme Court Justice Byron White, a John F. Kennedy appointee, beginning in 1987.
He also served as associate counsel for judicial selection under President Bill Clinton, chief of staff to Vice President Al Gore, chief of staff and counselor to Clinton Attorney General Janet Reno, and chief of staff to Biden during his vice presidency.
After his stint as Biden’s chief of staff, Klain served as White House Ebola response coordinator under President Barack Obama.
