Washington, November 4, 2026 (Yes Punjab News)
Ro Khanna, co-chair of the Congressional Caucus on India and Indian Americans and a vocal critic of US President Donald Trump’s tariffs on India, has won a sixth term in the US House of Representatives, returning to a chamber that Democrats will now control.
Khanna, a Democrat representing California’s 17th Congressional District, defeated Republican Ritesh Tandon by approximately 71 per cent to 29 per cent, with around 44 per cent of the expected votes counted when the race was called.
The Silicon Valley lawmaker has strong family connections with India. His grandfather, Amarnath Vidyalankar, participated in India’s freedom struggle, spent time in jail during the movement and later became a member of the country’s first Parliament.
“Because of my grandfather, I was influenced by Gandhi’s thinking, by Nehru’s beautiful speeches about liberal democracy, about pluralism,” Khanna told NBC News in 2023.
Khanna has repeatedly criticised Trump’s trade policy towards India. After the US President raised tariffs on Indian goods to 50 per cent in 2025, including an additional 25 per cent linked to India’s purchases of Russian oil, Khanna accused him of damaging decades of bipartisan efforts to strengthen US-India relations.
“Trump is destroying 30 years of bipartisan work to build the US-India strategic partnership because Modi refuses to nominate him for a Nobel Peace Prize. He imposed higher tariffs of 50% on India than China,” Khanna said in September 2025.
He also urged Indian Americans who supported Trump to speak out against the tariffs, arguing that the measures were harming a strategic partnership important to countering China’s influence.
On October 8, 2025, Khanna and Congresswoman Deborah Ross led a letter signed by 19 lawmakers urging Trump to “reset and repair” relations with India and end the tariffs.
Khanna has also played a role in advancing India-related legislation. In 2022, the House approved his amendment to the annual defence bill supporting a waiver for India from sanctions under the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA). His office described it as the most significant congressional legislation on US-India relations since the civil nuclear agreement.
Following the Pahalgam terror attack and India’s Operation Sindoor in May 2025, Khanna told CNN that India had responded by targeting terrorist networks and stressed the importance of de-escalation.
He became co-chair of the Congressional Caucus on India and Indian Americans in 2023 alongside Republican Mike Waltz. He has also highlighted issues affecting the Indian American community, including green card and tourist visa backlogs and children who age out of their parents’ immigration status.
Born in Philadelphia in 1976 to parents who emigrated from Punjab, Khanna served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Commerce in the Obama administration. He defeated incumbent Mike Honda in 2016 after losing to him in 2014.
Khanna serves on the House Armed Services Committee, the Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party and the Oversight Committee. His campaign raised approximately $15 million during the 2026 election cycle and had around $17 million in cash on hand as of October 14, according to Federal Election Commission filings.
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