Silicon Valley incumbents heading back to Washington

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Silicon Valley’s congressional incumbents held strong on Election Day with Democratic Reps. Ro Khanna, Zoe Lofgren and Anna Eshoo all retaining their seats.

In District 17, Khanna received 75.8% of the vote. Republican challenger Ritesh Tandon took 24.2%.

“I am so honored to have such strong support and want to thank everyone in my district,” Khanna wrote on Twitter. “I also want to thank Ritesh Tandon for a spirited race and I hope we can bring the community together.”

Khanna, a former law and economics professor, was first elected to Congress in 2016. He is a member of the House Budget Committee, the House Armed Services Committee and the House Committee on Oversight and Reform.

Tandon said he was grateful to all his supporters, including those who worked on his campaign.

“We will continue to work together and focus on the people of our district,” he said. “…As a man of faith, I believe we should serve others and stand up for those that are unable to fight for themselves. It is time we reject special-interest politics and embrace community service.”

Tandon additionally congratulated Khanna for his win.

In District 18, Eshoo received 66.6% of the vote. Democratic challenger Rishi Kumar took 33.4%.

Eshoo was first elected to Congress in 1992 and is currently the chair of the Subcommittee on Health. The congresswoman told San José Spotlight she was “overwhelmingly grateful” to all her constituents.

“There are a handful of colleagues in the House that lost, and we will miss them because they added such value to the House of Representatives, but we (Democrats) held the House and that is very good news to me,” she added.

In District 19, Lofgren came out ahead 77.2% of the vote, whereas Republican challenger Justin Aguilera took 22.8%.

Lofgren, a former immigration lawyer, was first elected to Congress in 1994. She is the chair of the Committee on House Administration and the Subcommittee on Immigration and Citizenship.

Democrats maintained their majority in the House, as expected. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) addressed the nation during a news conference at about 1 a.m. EST.

“We have held the House, and after all the votes are counted, we will see how much better we will do than that,” she said. “…Our purpose in this race was to win so that we could protect the Affordable Care Act and that we could crush the virus, stop the spread of it and reward our workers who risked their lives to save lives and now might be losing their jobs.”

Contact Katie King at [email protected] or follow @KatieKingCST on Twitter.