CUPERTINO, California– Political pundits are watching closely as Ro Khanna, President Obama’s former deputy assistant commerce secretary, launched his campaign to unseat fellow Democrat and 12-year incumbent Mike Honda in 2014 and take over California 17th district’s (D17) congressional seat—the area popularly known as South Bay.
It is the heart of Silicon Valley, home to Tier 1 companies like Apple, Yahoo, eBay and Intel and spanning the cities of Milpitas, Santa Clara, Cupertino, Sunnyvale, Campbell, North San Jose, Fremont and Newark.
The South Bay is also rich in Filipino American votes. Community leader Ben Menor estimates that there are about 15,000 Filipino voters in Milpitas and 18,000 in Berryessa. “This is the first time in many races that the Fil-Am community [which had always backed candidates of Filipino descent] is supporting, as a block, a non-Filipino candidate,” Menor claims.
Khanna is a second-generation Indian immigrant. His campaign plans to reach out to the pockets of Filipinos living in Santa Clara and Sunnyvale by the end of June. Last on the list would be Cupertino and Monte Sereno where only a few Filipinos live.
With the campaign just beginning, Khanna may still have a lot of convincing to do among Filipinos.
“I just met Ro Khanna when he requested to meet with Filipino leaders,” says Vince Songcayawon, Evergreen School District Board of Trustees member. He seems to be aware of Filipino issues in the community. I would tend to support him. But I don’t know him that well and I haven’t worked with him. Let’s wait and see.”
Some already sold
But some Fil-Ams are already sold on Khanna. San Jose State University adjunct professor and one of the first Filipino principals in the Eastside Unified School District, Thelma Boac, coined the phrase that Khanna uses: “Silicon Valley is technology rich but its schools are technology poor.” The Macs that Apple donated to some schools some years ago are now old and there’s hardly any IT to maintain them, explains Boac.
“I believe in Ro Khanna’s views on education and technology and where he wants to take technology in terms of access for our students to compete in a global economy,” Boac explains. As an educator she believes Khanna is the best person who can address the cost of college education in Congress because of his background. “He understands that college loans and scholarships should be readily accessible to those qualified. Another issue is the heavy burden of college loans after graduation.”
From his experiences teaching economics at Stanford University and law at Santa Clara University, Khanna, a 36-year-old lawyer, urges education that “should lead (students) to real jobs,” that “online courses should be valid,” and “our universities should not turn away California students.” Khanna adds: “Our schools need to know how to code, provide students opportunities for higher education” because “knowledge is the key to high-paying jobs.”
Jose Esteves, the mayor of Milpitas, likes Khanna’s vision that Silicon Valley should be a leader in economic development and technology in the country and the world. “He will focus on manufacturing and he has the experience, education, ideology, direction and platform. He is very supportive of Filipino issues in the community–veterans’ benefits, immigration reform, government representation and accessibility to federal service.”
Esteves says incumbent D17 Congressman Mike Honda “has been dormant, maybe because he has had no viable opponent in the last elections. It’s only lately that (Honda) has started to be (visible). (Honda’s) real strength is in the labor union.”
Honda’s big challenge
Honda may have a big challenge to overcome as Khanna comes to the campaign with the same analytics and team that made Obama president in 2012.
Silicon Valley native Leah Cowan, former Obama campaign regional field director in much contested North Carolina, was among the organizers who got Obama winning votes in 2012 than 2008. She is now Khanna’s campaign manager.
Even Honda’s base in unions could meet a serious challenge. Sergio “Jeff” Santos, former two-term United Auto Workers (UAW) president, is a member of Khanna’s campaign executive committee. Santos says close to 4,500 UAW members lost their jobs when the New United Motors Manufacturing Inc. (NUMMI) plant in Fremont closed in 2010 “before it was owned by Tesla.”
Santos says Khanna is “a friend and champion of the Fremont autoworkers,” that “the auto industry is still an important part of America” and that it goes to show that “there are still good paying manufacturing jobs in America.”
Obama’s old team
But Khanna chose to launch his campaign at the heart of Apple town, stressing change and innovation at the core of his platform.
“In this district, we meet people from across the globe. We have no borders. That’s why the world looks up to Silicon Valley for innovations. It represents the U.S. at its best and the 21st century at its best,” he says. “The country won’t prosper if its politics continues to be dominated by special interest (groups),” citing as an example the contested ban on automatic weapons that’s still raging.
Former Obama campaign field general and now Khanna campaign general consultant Jeremy Bird flew in from chilly Montreal to be at the campaign launch. “In Silicon Valley, we learned that we need disruption, change. Prove to all naysayers we can do it again. We did it before,” Bird says.
If the talking points sound like something out of the 2008 campaign, it maybe because Bird’s not the only one on hand from Obama’s old team. Former Santa Clara County Assistant DA and ex-Obama campaign regional field organizer, Mary Shine, is also on board as campaign volunteer at the grassroots level, coordinating “calls, voter registrations and meeting greets” that propelled the Obama votes.
Also a campaign executive committee member is Stanford University senior Lindsay Lamont, who interned for Google and ABC News. She says Khanna “is one of the new leaders we want who knows the value of education and the value of investing on the new generation.”
Incumbent Mike Honda may have his hands full with Khanna’s campaign being led by seasoned strategists whose generalship helped bring about Obama’s two presidential victories. The question in everyone’s mind is: Will it work again?