Rep. Khanna will end Sen. Dianne Feinstein's Senate run

Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif, said he won't run for the seat of retiring Sen. Dianne Feinstein and will endorse Rep. Barbara Lee instead.

Despite a lot of enthusiasm from Bernie folks, the best place, the most exciting place, the fit place, for me to serve as a progressive is in the House of Representatives, according to I-Vt. Khanna, who spoke about Bernie Sanders in an interview on CNN's State of the Union. Khanna said he will be a co-chair of Lee's campaign, adding that We need a strong anti-war senator, and she will play that role. After three decades in the Senate, Feinstein, 89, said this year she would retire from Congress at the end of 2024.

In January, Democratic Reps. Katie Porter and Adam Schiff announced they were running, joining what is expected to be a crowded Democratic primary race for Feinstein's seat. The same month, Khanna told Politico that he was considering a Senate bid.

Lee, who announced her Senate campaign last month, has been in the House since 1998 and previously was in both the state Senate and the Assembly. She is a co-chair of the Steering and Policy Committee.

Lee is also a chair of the Congressional Black Caucus and co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. She has a long history of speaking out about the need for Congress to revisit the authorization for military force it passed after the 9-11 terrorist attacks, which Presidents have used as the legal basis to launch military operations.

Khanna nodded to Lee's voice by being the lone vote against the endless war in Afghanistan. She stood up so strongly against the war in Iraq, Khanna said. She worked with me in trying to stop the war in Yemen, the War Powers Resolution. Jake, representation matters. Khanna said that there wasn't a single African American woman in the Senate: She would fill that role. She is the only candidate from Northern California, and she is going to consolidate a lot of progressives.