Khanna Poised To Unseat Honda In Battle For Bay Area's 17th Congressional District
SANTA CLARA (CBS SF) -- After the polls closed Tuesday, challenger Ro Khanna appeared poised to unseat 8-year incumbent Mike Honda for the 17th Congressional District.
The district straddles Alameda and Santa Clara counties and covers Sunnyvale, Santa Clara, Cupertino, North San Jose, and parts of Milpitas, Fremont and Newark.
Honda narrowly defeated Khanna in 2014 in a race that took 3 days to call.
At about 9:30 p.m., Khanna took the stage at his campaign celebration in Fremont to declare victory before Honda had conceded defeat.
Khanna tried to sound a more civil and conciliatory tone in his victory speech, noting Mike Honda's years of service to the country.
Meantime, Honda was subdued when he appeared before the supporters at his campaign party at Justin's Restaurant in Santa Clara.
He thanked them saying, "The numbers may be down, but I'm not down yet."
Honda did not concede and he asked supporters to exercise patience and to be hopeful.