Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Fremont) announced on Sunday that he will co-chair Rep. Barbara Lee for the US Senate.

Khanna, who has been urged by allies of Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) to consider a presidential candidacy, had spent months considering a possible bid to succeed outgoing California Senator Dianne Feinstein shortly after Rep. Katie Porter (D-Irvine) launched her campaign in January that he would make a decision in the coming months.

Khanna called it “an honor” to hear from supporters of Sanders and other progressives who wanted him in the race against Lee (D-Oakland), Porter and Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-Burbank), but said, “I believe the most exciting place to make bold and progressive policies right now is in the House.

So he passed a Senate run and endorsed Lee, his own

colleague

progressive congressional colleague.

“From the beginning I said I would look closely at what Barbara Lee is doing and her decision would weigh heavily on mine,” said Khanna.

in a statement

. “She is a personal hero and one of the reasons I first ran for Congress on an anti-war platform at age 27. Her single voice against the war in Afghanistan is one of the most courageous acts of the modern time.”

Last month, one

UC Berkeley Institute of Government Studies

poll co-sponsored by the Los Angeles Times

found that only 4% of registered Democrats and nonpartisan voters in the survey supported Khanna for the US Senate. Even if Khanna’s supporters backed Lee, their combined support would be as low as 10% in that poll. Khanna’s endorsement and role in Lee’s campaign could help her raise more money, though neither of them are the fundraising juggernauts that Schiff and Porter are. He endorses Lee, Khanna

also said, “Representation is important,” noting that while black women are the backbone of the Democratic Party, there is not a single black woman in the Senate.

“For far too long, the institutions of our country have failed to reflect the people,” he said. “Building a multiracial, multicultural democracy is hard and we have to be willing to fight for it. I look forward to fighting alongside Barbara Lee.