Ro Khanna facts for kids

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Quick facts for kids Ro Khanna
Official portrait, 2016

Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from California's 17th district
Incumbent
Assumed office January 3, 2017
Preceded by	Mike Honda

Personal details
Born	Rohit Khanna (1976-09-13) September 13, 1976 (age 48) Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Political party	Democratic
Spouse	Ritu Ahuja Khanna (m. 2015)
Children	2
Relatives	Amarnath Vidyalankar (grandfather)
Education	University of Chicago (BA) Yale University (JD)

Rohit Khanna (/ˈkɑːnə/ KAHN-ə; born September 13, 1976) is an American politician and lawyer. He serves as a U.S. Representative for California's 17th congressional district since 2017. He is a member of the Democratic Party.

Before becoming a representative, Khanna worked for the United States Department of Commerce under President Barack Obama. He also supported Bernie Sanders in his presidential campaigns. Khanna was born in Philadelphia to parents who immigrated from India. He believes in a "new economic patriotism" and says he only accepts campaign donations from individuals, not from big companies or special interest groups called political action committees (PACs).

Early Life and Education
Work in Politics and Law
Working in the U.S. House of Representatives
Elections
Personal Life
Images for kids

Early Life and Education

Rohit Khanna was born on September 13, 1976, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His parents came to the U.S. from Punjab, India. His father is a chemical engineer, and his mother was a schoolteacher.

Khanna's grandfather, Amarnath Vidyalankar, was part of the Indian independence movement. He worked with leaders like Lala Lajpat Rai and was jailed for two years while fighting for India's freedom.

Khanna went to Council Rock High School North and graduated in 1994. He earned a degree in economics from the University of Chicago in 1998. Later, he got his law degree from Yale Law School in 2001. After law school, he worked for a federal judge and specialized in intellectual property law, which deals with inventions and creative works.

Work in Politics and Law

While in college, Khanna worked on political campaigns, including Barack Obama's first campaign for the Illinois Senate. He also interned for former Vice President Al Gore and former President Jimmy Carter.

From 2004 to 2009, Khanna worked as a lawyer for technology companies. In 2009, President Barack Obama appointed him as a deputy assistant secretary in the United States Department of Commerce. In this role, Khanna helped lead international trade missions to increase U.S. exports.

After leaving the Department of Commerce, Khanna joined a law firm in Silicon Valley. He also did pro bono legal work, which means working for free to help people. This included helping Hurricane Katrina victims and working on cases about race discrimination. He also taught economics at Stanford University and law at Santa Clara University School of Law.

In 2012, Khanna wrote a book called Entrepreneurial Nation: Why Manufacturing is Still Key to America's Future. He believes that making things in America is important for the country's future.

Khanna first ran for Congress in 2014 but lost. He ran again in 2016 and won, becoming the U.S. Representative for California's 17th district. He has been reelected several times since then.

Working in the U.S. House of Representatives

As a U.S. Representative, Ro Khanna works on many important issues.

Fighting Climate Change

Khanna cares a lot about the environment. He leads a special committee that looks into how big oil companies have shared misleading information about climate change. In 2021, he brought the CEOs of major oil companies like ExxonMobil and Chevron to testify under oath. He wanted them to explain if they had hidden information about how burning fossil fuels affects the Earth's temperature and causes extreme weather.

He also helped get a large investment of $369 billion for climate solutions included in a law called the Inflation Reduction Act. Khanna has also called for increasing oil production in the short term to lower gas prices, while also investing in renewable energy for the long term. He supports the "Green New Deal" proposal, which aims for a 100% renewable energy economy.

Internet Bill of Rights

Khanna has worked to create an "Internet Bill of Rights." This idea came after a company called Cambridge Analytica misused people's online data. Khanna's plan includes giving U.S. citizens control over their personal online data. It also says people should know and agree when their data is collected or sold. He also supports net neutrality, which means internet providers should treat all internet traffic equally. The inventor of the World Wide Web, Tim Berners-Lee, supports Khanna's ideas for this bill.

Technology and Jobs

Khanna wants to bring more technology and manufacturing jobs across America, not just in places like Silicon Valley. He helped write a law called the Endless Frontier Act, which increases science funding and creates technology centers around the country. This law led to one of the biggest investments in chip manufacturing in U.S. history.

He also worked on laws to help veterans get apprenticeships in tech and to make federal websites more modern. Khanna believes that tech companies should hire people from all over the country, not just from top universities. He has led efforts to bring software design jobs to smaller towns and rural areas.

Fair Economy

Khanna supports ideas to make the economy fairer for everyone. He co-sponsored a bill to make public colleges tuition-free. He also proposed expanding a tax credit to help working families.

He supports "Medicare for All," which is a plan to provide healthcare for everyone in the country. Khanna also supports workers' rights to join unions and has urged companies like Starbucks to respect their employees' right to unionization.

LGBT Rights

Khanna has supported laws to make U.S. passports more inclusive by allowing a gender-neutral "X" identifier.

Foreign Policy

Khanna believes that Congress should have a bigger say in when the U.S. goes to war. He has worked to end U.S. military support for the conflict in Yemen, where many civilians have suffered. He argues that Congress never approved America's role in that war.

He has also called for the U.S. to talk more with North Korea to reduce tensions and work towards peace. Khanna believes the U.S. should avoid military actions when its security is not directly at risk. He has been critical of military strikes in Syria and has called for withdrawing U.S. troops from Syria and Afghanistan.

Fighting Hate and Promoting Pluralism

Khanna has led efforts to fight antisemitism on college campuses and around the world. He supported a resolution to fund education about the Holocaust and ongoing antisemitism. He has also spoken out against laws that glorify Nazi collaborators.

He is the first Indian-American Congressman to join the Congressional Pakistan Caucus, aiming to improve relations between India and Pakistan. He believes in pluralism, which means respecting all groups, including Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Buddhists, and Christians.

Working with the President

Khanna has often voted in line with President Joe Biden's policies.

Term Limits

Khanna supports limiting the terms of Supreme Court justices. He believes this would make the Court more fair and democratic.

Free Speech

Khanna is a strong supporter of free speech. He has worked to prevent social media companies from censoring news reports.

Committee Assignments

Khanna serves on several important committees in the House of Representatives:

Committee on Armed Services (dealing with military and defense)
- Subcommittee on Cyber, Information Technologies, and Innovation (he is the Ranking Member, meaning the lead member of the minority party)
- United States House Armed Services Subcommittee on Strategic Forces
Committee on Oversight and Accountability (watching over government actions)
- United States House Oversight Subcommittee on Cybersecurity, Information Technology, and Government Innovation
- United States House Oversight Subcommittee on Economic Growth, Energy Policy, and Regulatory Affairs
Select Committee on Strategic Competition between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party (focused on competition with China)

Groups He Belongs To

Khanna is part of many groups in Congress, called caucuses, that focus on specific issues:

Climate Solutions Caucus
NOPAC Caucus (focuses on not taking PAC money)
India Caucus
Pakistan Caucus
Vietnamese Caucus
Congressional Antitrust Caucus (focuses on preventing monopolies)
Congressional Progressive Caucus
Medicare for All Caucus
Congressional Blockchain Caucus
Congressional Caucus for the Equal Rights Amendment
Rare Disease Caucus

Elections

Ro Khanna has run for the U.S. House of Representatives several times.

In 2004, he ran for the first time but lost.
In 2014, he challenged the current representative, Mike Honda, but lost by a small number of votes.
In 2016, he ran against Mike Honda again and won, becoming the U.S. Representative for California's 17th congressional district.
He has been reelected in 2018, 2020, and 2022.

United States House of Representatives elections, 2016
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Democratic	Ro Khanna	142,262	61.0
	Democratic	Mike Honda (incumbent)	90,919	39.0
Total votes			233,181	100
	Democratic hold

|- style="background-color:#F6F6F6" ! colspan="3" style="text-align:right;" | Total votes | style="text-align:right;" | 211,162 | style="text-align:right;" | 100.0 |-

|- style="background-color:#F6F6F6" ! colspan="3" style="text-align:right;" | Total votes | style="text-align:right;" | 297,336 | style="text-align:right;" | 100.0 |-

|- style="background-color:#F6F6F6" ! colspan="3" style="text-align:right;" | Total votes | style="text-align:right;" | 180,253 | style="text-align:right;" | 100.0 |-

|- style="background-color:#F6F6F6" ! colspan="3" style="text-align:right;" | Total votes | style="text-align:right;" | 254,877 | style="text-align:right;" | 100.0 |-

Personal Life

Ro Khanna lives in Fremont, California, with his wife, Ritu Khanna, and their two children. His wife's father, Monte Ahuja, founded an automotive parts company.

Khanna is a practicing Hindu. He describes his faith as "Gandhian," which means it is inspired by the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi, focusing on peace and non-violence.

Images for kids

Khanna at a Net Neutrality demonstration in Washington, D.C.
Khanna with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Pramila Jayapal and Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, February 2, 2023

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