Convention Insider: Ro Khanna Never Skips Breakfast

As Representative Ro Khanna of California left a Michigan delegation breakfast this week after giving a brief speech, he was humble about the impression he had made.

The attendees, he had noticed, were “clearly more interested in their breakfast than any of the speakers.”

But one of his lines, he noted happily, had drawn a favorable reaction: “Donald Trump, in four years, how many new factories came up in those four years in Michigan?”

“Zero!” the crowd responded.

“My big focus is trying to make the economic case for the Harris-Walz ticket,” Mr. Khanna said, holding a cup of coffee as he waited for a Lyft to whisk him to his next stop. He added, “I use these state breakfasts to see how I can build on that economic message.”

Over two hours on Tuesday morning, Mr. Khanna offered a snapshot into the life of a busy, well-known Democrat at the party’s national convention in Chicago. His eventful schedule showed the behind-the-scenes rigors of climbing the political ladder, with elected officials laboriously rehearsing their stump speeches and retail skills away from the limelight.

Mr. Khanna’s whirlwind morning took him next to speak at breakfasts for the Nevada and New Hampshire delegations, where he snapped photos, signed a copy of his book, “Progressive Capitalism,” and lingered to chat with attendees until a harried staff member ushered him away to an interview. Earlier, he had spoken with Abbas Alawieh, an “uncommitted” delegate from Michigan and a founder of a protest group representing Democratic primary voters who opposed President Biden over his stance on the war in Gaza.