Vivek Ramaswamy Agrees to Debate Ro Khanna, a California Democrat

Vivek Ramaswamy, the entrepreneur and Republican presidential candidate, said on Wednesday that he would debate Representative Ro Khanna, Democrat of California.

Mr. Ramaswamy becomes the second candidate in the G.O.P. field to agree to debate a Democrat who isn’t running for president: Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida is scheduled to debate Gov. Gavin Newsom of California at the end of November.

One more and there will be a trend.

Mr. Khanna suggested the debate in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, on Wednesday. “The University of Chicago Institute of Politics wants to have a civil discourse with the two of us on race, identity and the American dream. I accepted. I assume, as a speech advocate, you’re game @VivekGRamaswamy?” he wrote in response to a post in which Mr. Ramaswamy said that he was open to debating “a smart Democrat who’s willing.”

Mr. Ramaswamy replied: “You’re a solid dude with whom I disagree on a lot, and I’d be glad to have a discussion at some point, just need to balance it in the context of campaign priorities. If you are willing to do it in New Hampshire, I’m game.”

There is a huge ideological gap between Mr. Khanna, a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, and Mr. Ramaswamy, who has espoused some of the most far-right positions in the Republican presidential field. No date has been publicly announced for their forum.

Despite the two agreements in quick succession — Mr. DeSantis and Mr. Newsom finalized the details of their Nov. 30 debate last month — it is highly unusual for presidential candidates to spend time during a campaign debating a person they are not competing against.

But every candidate not named Donald J. Trump is operating in Mr. Trump’s shadow, as the former president continues to lead Republican primary polls by dozens of percentage points. And the debates hosted by the Republican National Committee, which Mr. Trump has not attended, have not moved the needle in any substantial manner.

Mr. Ramaswamy had initially planned to debate a fellow candidate, former Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey, until the R.N.C. reminded them that the pledge they had signed to support the party’s eventual nominee also forbade them to participate in any debates not sanctioned by the committee.

An R.N.C. spokeswoman said an unsanctioned debate with a Democrat would not violate the pledge.