Khanna holds first postelection town hall
Congressman-elect vows to fight ‘ideas like a Muslim registry and thousands of deportations’ with ‘vocal leadership’
SAN JOSE — Silicon Valley’s Congressman-elect Ro Khanna returned from his Washington, D.C., orientation to host his first public meeting Sunday since the election, drawing a crowd considerably larger than those seen during his campaign to tackle Rep. Mike Honda.
“We’d see 15 people show up sometimes,” Khanna said Sunday at the International Creative and Performing Arts Center on Bollinger Road, near the southeastern border of the 17th Congressional District. “We had 400 people RSVP for this. What that says to me is that people are really on edge about the political climate — there’s a lot of anxiousness about what the election means.”
Khanna’s 20-point trouncing of Honda — a liberal stalwart who had held the office since 2000 — made him one of 51 freshman members of Congress this year. Khanna won his seat after pledging to be a forwardthinking and fresh voice for Silicon Valley who would bring bold proposals to the table, with an eye toward job creation and education reform.
About 250 were in attendance for the 90-minute town hall meeting that was dedicated entirely to answering questions from constituents. And those questions ranged from local sensory offenders such as airplane noise and landfill stench to civil rights concerns that are now taking center stage for many Americans: an increase in hate crimes and an incoming leader
in President-elect Donald Trump who has pledged mass deportations of undocumented immigrants.
“Ideas like a Muslim registry and millions of deportations, as crazy as they sound, will require strong and vocal leadership in opposition,” he said. “Those undermine basic American values, and I oppose them with every fiber of my being.”
Khanna said the contentious presidential election resulted in people feeling they have “permission to engage in behavior that was never tolerated before.”
“People make fun of things being ‘politically correct,’” he said, “but I would rather have things be PC if that means showing basic respect for other people.”
Bringing about such change, “rebuilding a sense of empathy and compassion,” is too large an issue for his office to take on, he said.
Anisa Chaudhry, 18, of Cupertino, said she thought Khanna’s reply was good, even if it didn’t offer an answer.
“I still think there’s no solution,” Chaudhry said. “No, I don’t think he can do much.”
Khanna did catch some criticism for late-campaign ads that portrayed Honda as a lawmaker asleep at the switch.
“I was under the impression that you weren’t going to do that and go negative,” said Jim Balassone, who voted for Khanna twice. “If you can’t maintain the high road to the very end, I just don’t have too much hope.”
Khanna said that he’s since had a very amicable conversation with Honda and that the departing congressman’s chief of staff has been going above and beyond what’s expected to ensure a smooth transition.
“I think he may have said some things during the campaign that he regrets,” Khanna said, “and I may have said some things that I regret. But I’m committed to healing this district and moving forward in a constructive way.”
Khanna said he’ll be filling key staff positions in the next couple of weeks before starting on Jan. 3. He’s signed up to be a vice chairman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus.
Asked what committee positions he will seek, Khanna declined to get specific. “That’s like being asked what college you’re going to attend before you’re accepted,” he said, but divulged he is aiming for posts related to economic and foreign policies.
Joyce Loewy, of Sunnyvale, said she has been getting more and more progressive the older she gets and voted for Honda because she “trusted that even if he’s old and sleepy, when he wakes up he will vote the right way.”
She said Khanna came off well on Sunday.
“I can only hope that he is as good as he represents himself to be,” she said. “I wish him luck, and I’ll be watching his voting record.”