New Delhi: Indian-origin Democrat Ro Khanna has won re-election to the US House of Representatives from California’s 17th Congressional District.
For years, Khanna has occupied an unusual position in American politics: he has backed Silicon Valley’s technology billionaires and entrepreneurs while championing the brand of progressivism associated with Bernie Sanders.
Now, he is calling for the wealthy in the tech hub to pay more in taxes. Adding another dimension to his re-election bid, his Republican challenger, Ritesh Tandon, was also of Indian origin.
Khanna, who represents California’s 17th Congressional District, located in the heart of Silicon Valley, has backed a one-time 5 per cent wealth tax on state residents with a net worth of more than $1billion.
“The reason that they don’t want to pay the tax is they don’t want to pay the tax,” Khanna said at an event in San Francisco. “They simply believe they’re entitled to this wealth… that they have, through their own labour, earned every penny, because they somehow are better than the rest of us.”
Khanna has won a sixth term in the US House, having already served five terms.
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Challenging Silicon Valley’s wealth gap
Khanna has repeatedly drawn attention to the economic paradox of Silicon Valley, where immense wealth exists alongside a struggling working class. He has sought to address the widening divide between the technology elite and ordinary working-class residents.
“America’s wealth/wage gap hasn’t been as high as it is today since before the Great Depression. By 1970, average CEO pay was 24 times higher than their average employees’ salary. Today, that disparity is 312 times,” Khanna said.
He has also taken increasingly sharp positions on US support for Israel. Following growing calls within the progressive camp to end military assistance, Khanna released a video calling for an end to aid and military sales to Israel.
“Donald Trump announced that he is going to zero out aid to Israel. Establishment Democrats have spent two years telling us that it’s too radical, but progressives won the debate, and now, we are gonna change the policy. We take back Congress, zero aid and no more military sales,” he said.
A progressive who backs Silicon Valley
Khanna has described a political vision that combines progressive economic policies with support for entrepreneurship, technology and American manufacturing. He has backed Sanders-style wealth redistribution, universal healthcare and higher taxes on the rich, while also maintaining ties with the technology industry.
He has also indicated that he is seriously considering a presidential run in 2028.
Speaking to NPR about Silicon Valley’s technology billionaires, Khanna said: “These folks would have been the conquerors in a different era. They kind of think of themselves as above you and I… And when I’m actually most inclined to run, I think. I know these people. I understand the economic future and I will have the guts to stand up to them.”
Khanna is a second-generation Indian-American Democrat. Born in Philadelphia to Punjabi immigrant parents, he is a lawyer by profession and previously served as an official in the Obama administration’s Commerce Department.
He also comes from a family with a history of involvement in India’s freedom movement. His grandfather, Amarnath Vidyalankar, was a freedom fighter who was imprisoned alongside Mahatma Gandhi.
(Edited by Maryam Hassan)