New York: For the first time since Rep. Ro Khanna ousted Rep. Mike Honda from his seat a decade ago, the Silicon Valley congressmember appeared to face a serious challenger in tech entrepreneur Ethan Agarwal. But in early returns on election night, Agarwal trailed in fourth place.
Khanna led overwhelmingly in his reelection bid with 57.8% of the vote, according to early returns posted to the Secretary of State’s Office. Republican entrepreneur Ritesh Tandon was a distance second with 17.2%, followed by Republican retired accountant Jennie Ha Phan with 12.9% of the vote, and then Agarwal with 6.2% of the vote.
The top two vote-getters, regardless of political party, will move onto the November runoff.
Early returns reflected only a small segment of ballots mailed to voters. Results early Wednesday represented about 5 million ballots, or about 22% of the 23 million mailed to all the state’s registered voters. It’s still unclear how many ballots were cast, as not every voter returns one, and those postmarked on or before Election Day must be counted if received within seven days after the election. Eligible voters also can register and vote through Election Day.
The district spans part of Alameda and Santa Clara counties and is one of the wealthiest congressional districts in the country, according to U.S. Census data.
