In a close election for Silicon Valley’s House of Representatives, incumbent Mike Honda held on to his seat in Congress on Nov. 7. Both Honda and opponent Ro Khanna vied for the position of congressman for California’s 17th congressional district. Khanna’s strong campaign efforts closed the vote to a 4.5 percentage point gap, down from Honda’s initial seven point lead, according to the San Jose Mercury News.
In a historical first election for California where both candidates had the same political affiliation, many MVHS students were touched by the campaign efforts.
“I kind of wanted Ro Khanna to win, so it was a disappointment yesterday when I saw that it was Mike Honda and not Ro Khanna,” senior Jahnavi Meka said.
Meka’s preference is largely a result of her personal encounter with Khanna. She met with him when she attended a party at a friend’s home, and found herself inspired by his encouragement for everyone to vote.
“It was really important for me,” Meka said. “He wanted us to go out there and show our spirit for [the U.S.]. I thought his main message was to go vote. It could be for him, it could be for someone else, but the most important thing is to get involved.”
Some students also move to proffer their reasoning behind the results of this year’s congressional elections.
“I definitely think [incumbency] is a humongous advantage,” junior Jason Lu said. “It’s kind of like: what’s not broken, don’t fix it. Some people don’t like change.”
Lu believes that many voters may decide to support incumbents because they are afraid of unpredictable changes. Thus, incumbents would easily garner more constituents than challengers.
“I think it’s fear of the unknown,” Lu said. “People like to keep things regular and if we were to pick a different person the result won’t be as satisfactory.”
Sophomore Sanjana Kothuri has a separate experience with the election. She became involved in Ro Khanna’s political campaign working as a student activist in local libraries. Through grassroots campaigning, Kothuri spread the word of Khanna’s policies from person to person, aiming to garner more supporters.
“I was excited for Ro Khanna to win because I liked most of his ideas,” Kothuri said. “I especially looked into the education side of it, and Ro Khanna has benefited many college students and some high schools by giving them a higher budget than they already have.”
Nonetheless, Kothuri believes that the ultimate election result will not significantly impact citizens’ lives. She finds that most of the elections in the past years have not affected her too much and believes this one may ultimately be the same.
“Eventually, I still think California should pick a different person one way or another,” Lu said. “Because if we keep things the same, nothing will change and we’ll just keep going in the same downward spiral.”
