Rep. Ro Khanna Named 4th Richest Californian in Congress

With a minimum net worth of $27 million, freshman lawmaker Ro Khanna (D-Fremont) is the fourth-richest Californian in Congress. That’s according to a new list compiled by Roll Call, which analyzed federal financial disclosure forms to determine that the total net worth of the Golden State’s 55-member delegation came to $439 million in 2016—a 14 percent drop from the year before—while Congress as a whole got richer.

In all, the Capitol Hill newspaper found in partnership with the Los Angeles Times, there are 20 millionaires in Congress from California with fortunes from real estate holdings, investment portfolios and their spouses. The state is home to both the richest and the poorest members of Congress, both of them SoCal Republicans: Darrell Issa tops the list with a net worth of $283.3 million while dairy farmer David Valadao comes dead last from a negative net worth of $17 million in business credit lines.

Khanna, an economist and intellectual property lawyer, reported that his wife Ritu Khanna—the multimillionaire daughter of Monte Ahuja, an executive of investment firm Mura Holdings and car parts company Transtar—holds 99 percent of his assets.

The first-term congressman, who proposed a $1 trillion tax credit and other policies to benefit the working class, spent none of his family’s money on his last race, according to Roll Call. His wealth includes more than 500 different investments and a few trusts. He also reported more than $500,000 in tech stocks and $50,000 in student loans.

Elsewhere in Silicon Valley and the Peninsula, Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-Menlo Park) lands 12th on the list for California, citing a $2 million net worth in 2016, while Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-San Jose) a district away comes in 17th place with $1.6 million.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-San Francisco) is the second-richest member of the state delegation and the wealthiest woman in Congress with a reported worth of $61.5 million. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, another San Francisco Democrat, comes No. 5 on the ranking with stocks from Apple and Facebook and a net worth of $16 million, even after she and her husband reported losing $11 million in assets since the year prior.

Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Oakland), is No. 29 with a reported net worth of $391,100. Fellow Oakland Democrat Barbara Lee comes in at No. 45 in the state due to a $225,000 negative net worth from two mortgages.

Roll Call and the LA Times noted that the accuracy of the financial disclosure forms is a little iffy. Some are penned by hand and hard to decipher, and mistakes earn only warning letters from an ethics panel.

Jennifer Wadsworth is the former news editor for San Jose Inside and Metro Silicon Valley. Follow her on Twitter at @jennwadsworth.

8 Comments

  1. > Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Oakland), is No. 29 with a reported net worth of $391,100.

    HA!

    Buy stock in Kamala Harris.

    Big moneybag progressive Democrats will be showering Kammie with $200,000 speaking engagements and $25 million book deals.

    And I’m not even trying to be cynical.

  2. …his wife Ritu Khanna—the multimillionaire daughter of Monte Ahuja

    Oh, that (given that his father in law is a prominent Ohio Republican) might have gone a long way towards explaining Khanna’s powerful bipartisan connections – such as the Gawd Awful, Females shouldn’t have been given the right to vote, Peter Thiel and Mitt Romney supporters – noted in this scathing piece: 022814 Ro Khanna: Silicon Valley’s own(ed) man.

    Too bad the author, Yasha Levine, had no easy way of knowing about the future father in law when he wrote that piece. I looked, and could not find –not even in the Local Mercury, though I’m not surprised, gatekeepers of the Technocrats as they are – how the two met, which is usually a norm in high profile engagements and weddings. Yet another Bush, Clinton, Obama etcetera Dynasty in the making.

    It must have been Stockholm Syndrome that, living in the 17th district, I had actually found myself wanting to like him recently for some of what he’s claimed to represent, but then he twitted some comments about bringing the Silicon Valley way to the rust belt. Last time I looked, just yesterday, Silicon Valley is a bastion of cruelty, with obscene homeless rates brought on by the rampant greed classicism, ageism, racism, and misogyny (single females cannot even afford to rent in Silicon Valley, and 49 other Major Metro Areas).

  3. > and misogyny (single females cannot even afford to rent in Silicon Valley, and 49 other Major Metro Areas).

    Dianne Feinstein
    Barbara Boxer
    Nancy Pelosi
    Kamala Harris
    Zoe Lofgren
    Anna Eshoo
    Jackie Spier

    The great thing about talking points for progressives is that it allows them to shut off their brains.

  4. Bubbler,

    Read the linked piece I already provided above, you’re so disingenuous. First off, the point was single females; whether divorced, widows, or just not married. Only one of those women you listed is single, Kamala; she is engaged though, to a powerhouse law firm partner.

    Secondly, outside of only Kamala, those female Reps got into office when single women could afford at least a roof over their head in Silicon Valley. Silicon Valley has an inverse ratio of females to the National Average, as it does, and always has, an even far more pathetic inverse ratio of Blacks. I would bet also that Silicon Valley has an inverse ratio of those just under retirement age who were effectively rolled over in over the last decade.

    Yeah, blah, blah, blah The Millionaire Female Reps of Silicon Valley (one engaged to be a millionaire soon), none of whom I respect after having lived and worked here for decades, which has quite subtly been used as a bludgeon against the valid Silicon Valley cry of Misogyny ever since Horrid Feinstein/Blum came into power.

    Bye, have no interest in wasting any more of my time with disingenuous, ill intended semantics.

  5. > Bye, have no interest in wasting any more of my time with disingenuous, ill intended semantics.

    Jennifer:

    I would like to report a hit and run.

  6. But their working for us small poverty salary workers, right???
    Why do they keep asking us for donations?
    They all look pretty happy in photos so are they laughing at us or did they just get their tax return money?

  7. Has Ro Khanna ever said anything lucid or cogent about the Stupid California High Speed Rail (SCHSR)?

    My guess is that, as a progressive Democrat, his to-do list includes scoring some federal pork for the SCHSR.

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