Rep. Ro Khanna is openly weighing a run for president in 2028, telling MS NOW on Friday that he is “strongly considering” entering what is expected to become a crowded Democratic contest.

The progressive California Democrat said his decision will come after the holidays. Khanna, who has hardly hidden his presidential ambitions, framed a potential campaign around an expansive economic agenda aimed at Americans who feel excluded from the country’s prosperity.

“We need a new deal for our time,” he said in an interview. “I have that kind of an economic vision, and I’ll make a decision after the holidays.”

Khanna said Democrats’ historic victories in the midterm elections “made it more likely than not” that he will pursue a 2028 campaign. He pointed to the varied backgrounds of winning Democratic candidates as evidence that voters are receptive to unconventional political voices.

“We elected so many unique candidates: a Muslim senator in Michigan, a young preacher in Texas, an African American district attorney in Mississippi,” Khanna said.

For Khanna, those results suggested that candidates do not need to fit a familiar political mold to succeed. He argued that voters showed an openness to diversity, political outsiders and candidates who might not initially look like obvious contenders.

“It shows that this country is open to diversity. It shows that they’re open to people who are not part of the establishment, unique outside voices and that someone can surprise,” he said.

Khanna also took a swipe at the prospect of a safe and uninspiring Democratic field. “And that it doesn’t have to just be a bland governor reciting platitudes. Not to say that that will be the case, but there’s an opening that someone new could come in.”

Born in Pennsylvania and now representing Silicon Valley, Khanna told MS NOW that he believes he can connect with voters across different parts of the country. His argument centers on an economy that he says delivers too much for a small group and too little for everyone else.

“I see that this economy is working for a few people, and now I want to make it work for the rest of the country,” Khanna said.

He also placed artificial intelligence at the center of the economic questions facing voters. Khanna said Americans want to understand whether they will have a meaningful place in the economic future and whether technological changes will work in their favor.

“I think what the country wants is to know how are they going to participate in the economic future. How is AI going to work for them? And my vision is that I understand that stuff when I’m on the side of people who have been left out.”

After the midterms, Khanna detailed his economic vision in an opinion essay for MS NOW. His proposals included public investment in selected industries and a national work program intended to prepare young people for jobs in the private sector.

The agenda also featured Medicare for All, one of Khanna’s longtime priorities, along with free childcare and free public college. Together, the proposals form the policy foundation he could carry into a presidential campaign if he decides to run.

Khanna is already a prominent figure in progressive circles. He attracted national attention in recent years through his push to release the Jeffrey Epstein files and served with Rep. Thomas Massie, a Kentucky Republican, as a leading sponsor of the Epstein Files Transparency Act.

Some of Khanna’s allies are not waiting for his final answer. Days after the midterm elections, they created a draft committee designed to develop financial and political backing for a possible 2028 campaign.

Khanna told NBC News that he was “honored” by the effort. The committee’s formation offered an early sign of appetite among allies for a campaign built around his progressive economic program and his pitch as a voice outside the traditional establishment lane.

At the same time, the developing Democratic field lost one possible contender. Sen. Chris Van Hollen, who had long been viewed as a potential 2028 candidate, said Friday during a Democratic conference in Denver that he is “ no longer pursuing ” a presidential bid.

Van Hollen made that statement one day after announcing that he would challenge Sen. Chuck Schumer for Senate majority leader. Khanna, meanwhile, is leaving the door conspicuously open until after the holidays, with Democratic midterm victories making a run look more likely than before.