Two tased at Marjorie Taylor Green town hall in Georgia
At a town hall in metro-Atlanta, Marjorie Taylor Greene was interrupted multiple times by protesters.
BRIDGEWATER, NJ – Rep. Ro Khanna, a California Democrat, was nearly 3,000 miles from his home district when a voter asked if his party was going to get “more spine.”
And who, exactly, would lead the way?
Would he?
While the minority party has little room to move in Washington, prominent Democrats like Khanna are crisscrossing the country claiming they’re filling a void left by GOP lawmakers, who have scaled back events due to Donald Trump-fueled clashes with constituents.
Sen. Bernie Sanders, Vermont’s gruff independent, and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, his progressive protégé from New York, just wrapped up their highly attended “Fighting Oligarchy” tour. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz has appeared on stages from Iowa to Texas to address auditoriums of red and swing district voters.
Democrats taking over the dais also face the task of assuaging their own supporters, concerned about the future of the party.
In a Republican-held New Jersey district, Khanna headlined a town hall April 21 that drew out a crowd of discontented liberals. He fielded two and a half hours’ worth of questions, outlasting the majority of people who came out to hear from him.
The event was part of Khanna’s ongoing national tour dubbed “Benefits over Billionaires,” which takes aim at Trump, the president’s uber wealthy adviser Elon Musk and the Republicans who represent the areas Khanna is visiting. Monday’s appearance in New Jersey’s 7th Congressional District was Khanna’s fourth stop in the town hall series and the first outside his home state of California.
The 48-year-old Democrat has positioned himself as a leading voice in the party’s progressive wing. A former co-chair of Sander’s 2020 presidential campaign turned surrogate for the Biden and then Harris 2024 campaign, Khanna is increasingly viewed as a potential 2028 contender.
“I believe the future of this country is a progressive future,” he told one New Jerseyan who inquired about liberals’ way forward.
Tensions flare for Republicans, Democrats go on offense
Early into the second Trump administration, as the newly minted Department of Government Efficiency laid into federal agencies and laid off thousands of workers, Republicans had roomfuls of angry constituents to answer to back home.
After many of these heated interactions between GOP lawmakers and voters pressing for answers went viral, House leadership advised members to quit hosting in-person events.
Democrats seized on the opening.
“That’s a shame,” Walz wrote in a March 4 social media post, announcing his own town hall tour. “If your congressman refuses to meet, I’ll come host an event in their district to help local Democrats beat ‘em.”
Heading into Monday night’s event, Khanna criticized GOP Rep. Tom Kean Jr., who represents New Jersey’s 7th district, arguing he wasn’t spending enough time with constituents.
Kean hosted a telephone town hall on March 26 that lasted about 30 minutes. The second-term Republican answered a dozen voters’ questions, which were screened by staff and read out by a moderator on the call.
Kean’s office did not respond to requests for comment from USA TODAY.
While a handful of Democrats are seeking to fill in gaps they say are being left by their Republican colleagues, Khanna said he would like to see more coordination with party leadership.
“We need a concerted strategy,” he told USA TODAY in an interview before the town hall. “It can’t just be, you know, Cory Booker’s heroic filibuster, my going on tours and town halls, Bernie Sanders and AOC doing rallies. We need a surge of 100 Democrats all doing the same thing on a weekend.”
“We need a plan that has us all going in the same direction.”
After the 2024 election, questions swirled around how Democrats would rebound from such a bruiser.
Daniel Bowen, a political science professor at The College of New Jersey, said these town halls are part of that process.
“This is how you recoup,” he told USA TODAY.
“What we’re seeing here with Representative Khanna, and also AOC and Bernie Sanders, is that process of creating support for political action that will lead to voting in the 2026 midterm elections,” Bowen added. “The Democrats don’t need much of a swing in order to retake the House of Representatives.”
Republicans currently have a seven-seat majority in the lower chamber. Cook Political Report in March labeled 18 House races toss-ups, eight of those seats currently held by a GOP member.
Opportunity in the Garden State
Kean’s district is currently in Cook Political Report’s “lean Republican” category. But the choice for Khanna to appear in New Jersey’s most competitive congressional district was likely strategic, Bowen said.
“Of course, Democrats see this as a potential pickup district,” he said.
Spanning northwest New Jersey, the district is a mix of rural expanses with rolling hills and river towns, with dense urban pockets en route to New York. Kean has represented the area since 2023 and is well known there as the son and namesake of a former New Jersey governor, as well as grandson of a former congressman.
The district remains a priority for both parties come midterm elections, Bowen said. Plus, showing face in New Jersey and other places beyond their home states may be advantageous for Khanna or any other politicians looking ahead.
“There is an opportunity here for enterprising Democrats to make a name for themselves across the country,” Bowen said.
Khanna, a Bucks County, Pennsylvania native, told USA TODAY part of his reasoning for stopping in the Garden State is because his brother, Vikas Khanna, lives in the district and until recently served as the First Assistant U.S. Attorney for New Jersey.
Also, he said, “I’m the right person because unlike Kean, I’m showing up. I mean showing up is half of politics, and we need, in my view, a lot of members and senators coming in.”
Hundreds of attendees came to hear Khanna speak, filling the rows of chairs and standing crowded along the edges of the Bridgewater Marriott hotel’s ballroom. Some held signs overhead that read “Tom Kean Jr. is a coward” or “We deserve better.”
In a “West Wing” emulating moment, one woman strutted through the aisles wearing an inflatable chicken suit, carrying flyers with the headline “Missing,” in red all-caps, above a photo of Kean.
Who’s in charge here?
Khanna heard a number of queries in New Jersey centered around the state of the Democratic party.
One attendee disparaged what he called a lack of leadership from Democrats and asked who would be able to reenergize liberals, in the style of former President Barack Obama in 2008.
Democrats are grappling with a leadership vacuum, according to polls that found no clear consensus among voters when it comes to who is in charge on the left. Additional polls show the party’s favorability with Americans at record lows.
“I’m not sure who I would say is leading,” Anthony Venditti, 66, told USA TODAY while waiting for the town hall to start. Paula Venditti, 67, said, “We need a populist.”
At 83, Sanders’ presidential aspirations are likely dashed, but other progressive members of Congress – notably Ocasio-Cortez and Khanna – are seen by many as potential successors.
Ocasio-Cortez raised $9.6 million in the year’s first quarter, an eye-catching amount that’s fueling speculation about her political future and potential ambitions.
Khanna declined to detail his aspirations, telling reporters after the event that he’s focused on the here and now.
“I think anyone who wants to lead the Democratic party in any capacity has to be meeting the moment,” he said. “And that’s what I’m really focused on.”
To voters in search of the next monumental figure to rally behind, Khanna said, “Wishing for another Obama is like wishing for another King or Douglass. He was once in a generation.”
“Is there going to be another Obama? I don’t know,” he added. “But do we need another Obama? No.”
The crowd chanted back, “Yes.”
Khanna, with a smile, conceded. “Well, ok, fine.”