Ro Khanna

Khanna sits in one of the country’s safest but most idiosyncratic Democratic seats: a Silicon Valley district that is 57.3% Asian, extraordinarily affluent, and politically attentive to both innovation and U.S.-China competition. The D+35 lean gives him room to operate as a national-profile progressive, but the district’s recent R shift and high-cost pressures keep voters pragmatic, not ideological. This is a coalition of engineers, immigrant professionals, and globally connected households that expects competence, economic upside, and a hard edge on national security without culture-war theatrics.

For advocates, the opening is to frame issues through competitiveness, affordability, and accountable government. In a district with $182,230 median income but crushing housing costs, messages about innovation-led growth, supply chains, research, skilled immigration, and consumer costs travel better than redistribution rhetoric. Khanna’s committee portfolio makes national-security economics especially salient: campaigns that connect tech leadership, manufacturing resilience, and oversight of China policy will land; anything that reads as anti-business or inattentive to Asian American concerns will not.