Khanna, the genial 45-year-old serving in his third term in the U.S. House of Representatives, has adopted a go-anywhere, do-anything media strategy. Do you sense pure media savvy, or a whiff of desperation? The question might matter more if Khanna didn’t feel so alone in his approach. The Democrats have “a story to tell,” as Barack Obama said at the White House this week, but a lot of trouble telling it, and everyone seems to know, but little seems to change.

With his party facing a dismal outlook in the midterms this fall, Khanna is asking Democrats to take a lesson from the master of the news cycle. “One of the things, as terrible as Donald Trump is,” the congressman says, “he does these rallies. So there’s this sense of movement.”

“We need a sense of motion and energy and excitement.”