SF Chronicle, SJ Mercury News voice their support.
By Deepak Chitnis
WASHINGTON, DC: California Congressional candidate Ro Khanna has received a pair of new endorsements from two of the state’s largest and most influential newspapers: The San Francisco Chronicle, and the San Jose Mercury News.
Khanna (37) is running against incumbent and fellow Democrat Mike Honda to represent California’s 17th Congressional District in the US House of Representatives. Khanna has racked up a significant number of big endorsements, mostly from Silicon Valley types, who have taken to Khanna’s vision of a more economically robust Bay Area.
The two new endorsements for Khanna are particularly significant because, in addition to being three of the most widely read newspapers in the state, both of their namesake cities are based, at least in part, in the 17th Congressional District. The film also has a huge Asian American population, with about half of the District’s citizens being of Asian origin.
“Our endorsement of Ro Khanna is not so much a repudiation of Honda as a recognition of the opportunity for an upgrade for a congressional district defined by innovation, resourcefulness and a commitment to meritocracy,” wrote the editorial board of the San Francisco Chronicle. “Khanna will help promote those values in a U.S. Capitol that desperately needs them.”
“We recommend Khanna,” wrote the San Jose Mercury News, “even though the incumbent is the venerable Mike Honda, whose graciousness and core values have endeared him to many.”
The San Jose Mercury News also added “Khanna could end up in a runoff with Honda. Unseating a longtime incumbent still would be very hard, but we hope he succeeds. He is ready for the Congress of tomorrow, while Honda is a politician of the past.”
Khanna’s road to victory is still far from over, however. Khanna has already mounted one unsuccessful political campaign, and is in an open primary that will be run on June 3. This means that the top two candidates, regardless of party affiliation, will face off for the general election in November.
In addition to Honda, the other major player in the 17th Congressional District’s race is Republican Vanila Mathur Singh. Although lagging in the polls, and running in a fairly liberal-dominated area, there is always the chance that she could galvanize the conservative population in the area and win enough votes to make it through the primary.