He Helped Crack the MAGA Coalition on Epstein Files. Will It Help Ro Khanna’s Presidential Ambitions?

Rep. Ro Khanna of California has achieved what no other Democratic presidential prospect has managed during the Trump era: successfully splitting the MAGA coalition and forcing the president to reverse course on a major issue. The question now is whether this accomplishment will translate into momentum for a potential 2028 White House run—or whether his willingness to partner with far-right Republicans will alienate the very Democratic voters he needs to win a primary.

The 49-year-old progressive Democrat from Silicon Valley orchestrated a months-long campaign that culminated on November 18, 2025, when Congress passed the Epstein Files Transparency Act by overwhelming bipartisan margins—427-1 in the House and unanimously in the Senate—compelling the Justice Department to release all unclassified records related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein within 30 days.

A Rare Bipartisan Victory in a Polarized Era

Khanna’s path to victory required navigating fierce resistance from President Donald Trump, Attorney General Pam Bondi, FBI Director Kash Patel, House Speaker Mike Johnson, and Vice President JD Vance. According to NBC News, the congressman achieved this by forging an unusual partnership with Rep. Thomas Massie, a libertarian Republican from Kentucky, and gaining support from far-right figures including Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, Nancy Mace of South Carolina, and Lauren Boebert of Colorado.

“We fought the president, the attorney general, the FBI director, the speaker of the House and the vice president to get this win,” Massie told reporters outside the Capitol on November 18.

The Mercury News reported that when it appeared enough Republicans were poised to pass the bill, “Trump reversed course and pledged to sign it”—a rare legislative defeat for a president known for maintaining iron control over his party.

Testing a Theory of Politics

NBC News reported that Khanna has been traveling to swing states and early contests to test the water for a possible 2028 White House bid. Early polls suggest he would be a heavy underdog if he runs, but the Epstein files victory provides him with a concrete example of his political theory in action.

In an interview with NBC News moments before the House vote, Khanna articulated his vision: “Whatever role I have, I hope it’s a role in shaping the national future of the Democratic Party and the country. We need to build an enduring coalition around a vision of new economic patriotism that can unite the left and right. And the elements of that are to rail against an elite governing class that has created a system that’s not working for ordinary Americans.”

He coined the phrase “the Epstein class” to describe what he called an elite governing class that has accumulated power without accountability—a framing designed to appeal across ideological lines. “The Epstein class is going to go,” he said on the House floor, according to NBC News. “And the reason they’re gonna go is the progressive left and the MAGA right and everyone in between is finally waking up against this rotten system.”

A Different Kind of Democrat

NBC News noted that Khanna’s approach is unique among Democrats and differs sharply from recent party strategy. “Khanna’s approach is unique among Democrats. He doesn’t quite have the fiery rhetoric of other rumored White House hopefuls such as California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, and he doesn’t have the iconic progressive image of New York’s Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez,” the outlet reported.

Jack Pitney, a political science professor at Claremont McKenna College, told the Mercury News: “Khanna is getting a boost in his embryonic presidential campaign. He saw an opportunity that others missed.”

Rather than seeking moderate Republicans for compromise on noncontroversial goals—the approach taken by Presidents Joe Biden and Barack Obama—Khanna partners with MAGA figures on populist issues that both left and right can frame as rebuking an entrenched establishment. He has teamed up with Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., to repeal Trump’s tariffs on coffee, and with Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., and Jodey Arrington, R-Texas, to propose congressional term limits, according to NBC News.

Building Trust Across Enemy Lines

Khanna’s success required building relationships that many Democrats would find distasteful. He explained his strategy to NBC News: “I have not gotten into Twitter wars with Marjorie Taylor Greene or Lauren Boebert. I have a real friendship with Thomas Massie. They trusted me enough not to make it about Donald Trump—from day one, any press conference we did, anything we did, we talked about it being about the survivors, not political.”

NBC News reported that Khanna acknowledged this creates tension: “Simply put, his willingness to partner with MAGA figures who are detested by liberals may not be a selling point for an angry and fired-up Democratic base. ‘That’s a criticism I sometimes get,” Khanna quipped.

Massie confirmed Khanna’s instrumental role to NBC News: “He’s able to put aside the partisan bomb throwing in order to work across the aisle, and he’s really good on TV. He was an important element of this. And it was his idea, really, to organize the survivor press conference. So I don’t know if it would have succeeded with any other Democrat on the other side of the aisle.”

Framing Around Victims, Not Politics

Khanna’s consistent messaging centered on justice for Epstein’s victims rather than partisan point-scoring. At a news conference with more than a dozen Epstein survivors outside the Capitol on November 18, he delivered emotional remarks captured by NBC News: “You had Jeffrey Epstein, who literally set up an island of rape—a rape island—and you had rich and powerful men, some of the richest people in the world, who thought that they could hang out with bankers, buy off politicians and abuse and rape America’s girls with no consequence. Because survivors spoke up, because of their courage, the truth is finally going to come out.”

The Mercury News quoted him telling Bay Area News Group: “It’s a historic day for survivors. This is one of the most disgusting and offensive scandals in American history. Jeffery Epstein basically had a rape island for rich and powerful men who raped and abused young girls with impunity. This entire ‘Epstein class’ needs to go.”

A Multi-Month Campaign Against Presidential Opposition

Khanna introduced the Epstein Files Transparency Act with Massie in July 2025. According to Newsweek, when Trump posted on Truth Social urging people to “not waste Time and Energy on Jeffrey Epstein, somebody that nobody cares about,” Khanna responded on X: “Why are the Epstein files still hidden? Who are the rich & powerful being protected?”

The Mercury News reported that the campaign faced numerous obstacles. In August, Speaker Johnson sent House members home early for recess when some GOP members joined Democrats calling to release the files. In October, the longest government shutdown in U.S. history began. Only after the shutdown ended in November did Johnson swear in a new Democratic representative from Arizona who provided the final signature needed to force consideration of the bill through a discharge petition.

NPR reported in early September that Khanna told Morning Edition: “A nation that cannot hold accountable rich and powerful men who have abused young girls is a nation that has lost its moral and spiritual bearings. We have an opportunity to do something in a nonpartisan way to seek justice for these victims.”

Expert Analysis: A Profile Boost

Jack Pitney, a political science professor at Claremont McKenna College, told the Mercury News: “Khanna is getting a boost in his embryonic presidential campaign. He saw an opportunity that others missed.”

Bill James, chair of the Santa Clara County Democratic Party, told the Mercury News the bill’s passage represented “a major victory for the party, which has struggled to find its voice after Trump’s victory last year.” James called it “a very masterful setting up of a challenge to Trump” that “shows that Trump is not invincible.”

The Presidential Question Mark

Yet Khanna faces significant obstacles to a presidential run. NBC News noted that he “lacks the national name recognition of other Democrats, including Pete Buttigieg, a former presidential candidate and transportation secretary in the Biden administration, who has also been viewed as a potential 2028 candidate.”

The outlet also pointed out historical precedent: “Not since the 1800s has a House member ascended straight to the presidency; and as an Indian American, Khanna would be looking to make history in more ways than one.”

Khanna himself acknowledged the challenge in his NBC News interview. “Do I think somehow we’re going to win all of Trump’s voters? No. I’m not naive,” he said. “But I think that that has a better shot of winning than we’re just going to do Infrastructure 2.0.”

He repeatedly invoked President Franklin Delano Roosevelt as a guidepost for his populist views and desire to take on wealthy interests, while conceding that his progressive ideals won’t fully upend the MAGA coalition.

The Potential Downside

Not all Democrats see Khanna’s approach as politically wise. Jan Soule, president of the Silicon Valley Association of Conservative Republicans, told the Mercury News that Khanna’s focus on Epstein was “a politically-motivated attempt to resist Trump” and “a distraction from issues like car break-ins in her San Jose neighborhood.”

More significantly for Khanna’s presidential ambitions, his willingness to embrace MAGA figures may prove toxic in a Democratic primary where the base remains deeply hostile to Trump and his allies. Standing alongside Greene, Boebert, and other far-right Republicans at press conferences—even for a worthy cause—could provide fodder for primary opponents arguing that Khanna is too willing to legitimize extremist voices.

Contrasting With Other Democratic Hopefuls

NBC News noted that Khanna does show “sharp elbows against Republicans at times, most notably positioning himself as a foil to Vice President JD Vance, who’s seen as a potential Republican front-runner in 2028.” The outlet reported that Khanna often goes after Vance on social media, and during a speech in April at Yale Law School, where both received their degrees, Khanna drew a comparison between the vice president and Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin.

Still, this combative approach toward individual Republicans differs from his collaborative legislative strategy—a tension Khanna will need to navigate if he pursues the presidency.

What the Victory Actually Achieved

ABC News 4 quoted Khanna explaining his strategy: “This is about protecting America’s children. This is about protecting America’s girls. How can you be America First and want young American girls to get raped by powerful billionaires? That narrative resonated with the American public, and Trump started to lose his base.”

The bill requires the Justice Department to release all unclassified records related to Epstein within 30 days, with allowances only for redacting victim identities or information that would jeopardize active federal investigations—not for “embarrassment, reputational harm, or political sensitivity.”

As the final vote tally in the House was read—427-1—NBC News reported that “several Epstein survivors who were sitting in the gallery embraced one another and loud cheers went up through the chamber.”

Populist Message

Khanna told the Mercury News that his campaign wasn’t politically motivated, noting he has urged release of Epstein files since 2019, when the convicted sex offender died in jail. In other interviews, he said he decided to tackle Epstein after appearing on podcasts and traveling in Republican territory, where Trump supporters used Epstein’s name as shorthand for government corruption.

“People say there’s a corrupt elite that’s shafting us,” Khanna told the Mercury News. “There’s a group of people who are really abusing the system. And they have broken American values and abandoned us. And in that anger, they would often point to Epstein.”

Whether this populist message—delivered through collaboration with MAGA Republicans—can win over Democratic primary voters remains the central question for Khanna’s presidential ambitions. He has demonstrated an ability to achieve bipartisan victories in a polarized era, but Democratic voters may ultimately decide they want a fighter who defeats Republicans rather than one who works with them, even on issues of shared concern.

For now, Khanna represents a singular figure in Democratic politics: a progressive willing to test whether building bridges to the populist right can create a winning coalition. The Epstein files victory proves the strategy can produce legislative results. Whether it can produce votes in Iowa and New Hampshire is a question that will only be answered if Khanna decides to run—and if Democratic voters are willing to reward a politician who believes the path forward involves talking to, rather than just talking about, the MAGA movement.

Images, Ro Khanna / Facebook. This story, conceptualized and edited by American Kahani’s News Desk, was aggregated by AI from several news reports.