SAN JOSE — When Mike Honda and Ro Khanna squared off two years ago to represent Silicon Valley in Congress, Honda’s seemingly interminable list of big name Democratic Party backers included none other than Khanna’s former boss, President Barack Obama.
But not this time around.
The president is not endorsing in this year’s rematch, Democratic National Committee spokesman Luis Miranda said Thursday, handing Honda another setback as he tries to defend his seat against a better-funded challenger while also confronting an ethics investigation.
“I think it might be a telling sign as to where some national Democrats think the race is going,” said Kyle Kondik, a congressional elections expert at the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics. “As a Democratic incumbent you’d love to have the backing of the incumbent Democratic president. This is something that the Honda folks would have to explain to their donors.”
Neither the DNC nor the White House on Thursday revealed why Obama decided not to endorse Honda again, although the ethical cloud hanging over his head could be the reason. And the decision comes at an embarrassing time for the congressman as more than 3,000 delegates are arriving in Honda’s hometown of San Jose for this weekend’s state Democratic convention.
Honda is expected to win the party’s endorsement because as an incumbent he just needs a simple majority to prevail. But he recently failed to get the party’s automatic endorsement after two dozen of the 17th Congressional District’s 86 state convention delegates signed a petition at Khanna’s behest.
Obama has rarely endorsed in congressional races, although he has been willing to back incumbents facing Democratic insurgents. Besides endorsing Honda two years ago, he endorsed Pete Stark in his losing battle in 2012 against Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Dublin.
Honda has seen some erosion of his support since defeating Khanna in 2014, and losing the president’s backing could send a symbolic message to voters, said Larry Gerston, a San Jose State professor emeritus of political science.
“When you have an endorsement one time and you don’t have it a second time, that is a shift,” he said. “I don’t know that substantively it means a lot. But when we’re talking about a close race, these symbolic considerations can become important.”
Honda’s campaign manager, Michael Beckendorf, downplayed the president’s neutral stance, noting that Honda still had the backing of many top state politicians and congressional colleagues, including Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco; Zoe Lofgren, D-San Jose; and Barbara Lee, D-Oakland.
“Congressman Honda has great admiration and respect for President Obama and his service to our country, but we were not expecting the president to get involved in this race,” Beckendorf said. “Congressman Honda has served this area for over three decades and voters know his record of fighting for working families and where his values lie — unlike our opponent.”
Khanna, a Fremont resident who served for two years in Obama’s Commerce Department, lost by 3.6 percentage points to Honda in 2014. By the end of last year, he had more than three times as much campaign cash on hand as Honda, who has been forced to use campaign funds to defend himself in a House Ethics Committee probe of whether he blurred the line between his campaign operations and congressional office.
“The president withdrawing his past endorsement is the most glaring case in an ever-growing exodus of Democrats leaving Congressman Honda in the wake of his ethics scandal,” Khanna spokesman Hari Sevugan said. “It begs the question: If President Obama has lost confidence in Mike Honda, why should voters have any confidence in him?”
Contact Matthew Artz at 510-208-6435. Follow him on Twitter at Matthew_Artz.
