Congressman Ro Khanna was elected to Congress in 2016 and is now serving his fifth term representing California’s 17th District, which includes communities in Silicon Valley. He is a leading progressive voice working to improve the lives of working people, and advance U.S. leadership on climate, human rights, and diplomacy around the world. He was co- chair of BernieSanders’ 2020 presidential campaign.

Khanna serves as vice chair of the Progressive Caucus, ranking member on the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Cyber, Innovative Technologies and Information Systems (CITI), co-chair of the Congressional Caucus on India and Indian Americans, a member of the Select Committee on the Strategic Competition between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party, and on the Oversight and Accountability committee, where he previously chaired the Environmental Subcommittee.

Khanna has been a leader on climate, bringing the CEOs of six major fossil fuel companies before Congress to testify under oath about climate disinformation for the first time in history and playing a key role in negotiations around the Inflation Reduction Act. He has introduced legislation to lower costs for families and improve the lives of everyday Americans, including a bill with Senator Bernie Sanders to cancel medical debt, legislation to provide $10 a day child care with high pay for workers, and a sweeping political reform plan that calls for banning PAC and lobbyist donations, setting term limits for Congress and Supreme Court Justices, and getting big money out of politics.

Khanna’s commitment to public service is rooted in the belief that the American Dream that inspired his family should continue to inspire future generations. His grandfather participated in Gandhi’s independence movement in India, spending several years in jail for promoting human rights and his parents immigrated to the United States—coming from India to seek opportunity and a better life for their children.

Prior to holding elected office, Khanna was a Lecturer in the Department of Economics at Stanford University and an Adjunct Professor at Santa Clara Law School. Governor Jerry Brown appointed him to the California Workforce Development Board for the State of California, where he served as chair for the Advanced Manufacturing Committee. He also served on the Board of Directors of Planned Parenthood Mar Monte and provided pro bono legal aid to the Mississippi Center for Justice on several contractor fraud cases on behalf of Hurricane Katrina victims. In 2009, President Obama appointed Khanna to serve as Deputy Assistant Secretary at the U.S. Department of Commerce. While there, he broke new ground organizing clean technology trade missions and expanding the Green Embassy program, which allows American clean technology firms to showcase their products in our embassies overseas.

He graduated with a B.A. in economics from the University of Chicago and received a law degree from Yale University. As a student at the University of Chicago, Khanna worked on Barack Obama’s campaign for State Senate and later his presidential campaign.