Ro Khanna (D-CA17) presents a mixed accountability profile: he is a vocal reformer who refuses all PAC and lobbyist contributions, founded the No PAC Caucus, and champions banning congressional stock trading, yet trades disclosed under his name remain a live controversy. Trackers and news outlets report his family executed roughly 4,284 trades worth over $59 million in 2025 and outperformed the S&P 500 by about 112% from 2024-2026, including a 2024 Nvidia purchase returning ~143% while he serves on a House Armed Services subcommittee that oversees defense AI; Khanna says he does not personally trade and has no input into his wife's trust, which holds the assets. He is among the wealthiest House members (2023 disclosure implying roughly $36M-$101M net worth, no liabilities), with reporting attributing most of that wealth to his wife's family fortune from Transtar Industries rather than to his office. His campaign-finance record shows industry-concentrated individual donations from Internet, venture capital and securities sectors tied to his Silicon Valley district, offset by his no-PAC/no-lobbyist stance, and the only enforcement matter is a 2021 $16,000 FEC settlement over donor-database software with no personal-use findings. No evidence was found of family lobbying or a staff revolving door, and GovTrack shows he missed only 0.8% of roll-call votes from 2017 to 2026, below the chamber median.
Public record
In Congress since
2017
Committees
House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party (Ranking Member) Armed Services Oversight and Government Reform
Missed votes, 119th Congress
1.6% (11 of 674; median member 1.9%)
Campaign money, 2025–26 cycle
$14M raised · 0% from PACs & committees · $17M cash on hand FEC ↗
H.R. 7008 bans new stock purchases by members, spouses and dependents; it doesn't force sales of existing holdings. The Senate vote was on the version paired with the SAVE Act, which is why no Democrat voted yes. Full breakdown →
Disclosed stock trades
0trades since Jan 2025
0buys
0sells
0filed past 45 days
$0–$0disclosed value range
32 of 32 reports were filed on paper (scanned images) and aren't itemized here; they're linked from the official index.
No transactions parsed.
Amounts are the ranges members must report, not exact values. The STOCK Act requires a report within 45 days of a trade; "late" counts days past that deadline, measured to the filing date.
How the score breaks down
Stock self-tradinghousehold / spouse
25% weight
58
Khanna states he does not personally trade and has no input into a trust held by his wife, Ritu Khanna, yet trades filed under his disclosures are voluminous and overlap with his committee jurisdiction. Trackers report the family executed roughly 4,284 trades worth over $59 million in 2025, with trades associated with him producing ~112% excess return over the S&P 500 from Jan 2024 to April 2026, including a Feb 2024 Nvidia purchase ($100k-$250k) returning ~143% while he sits on the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Cyber, Innovative Technologies and Information Systems, which oversees defense AI. Sludge also documented spouse-trust trades in fossil-fuel (Phillips 66, Coterra, Atmos) and defense (General Dynamics, Leidos, Honeywell) stocks after public divestment claims.
Khanna is among the wealthiest members of Congress; his 2023 disclosure implies a net worth roughly between $36.4 million and $101.5 million with no reported liabilities. He entered Congress in 2017 with an estimated net worth around $45.8 million (OpenSecrets). Reporting attributes most of the wealth to his wife Ritu Khanna, whose family fortune derives from her father's company Transtar Industries, rather than to congressional activity; growth is large in nominal terms but is largely explained by pre-existing family wealth and strong equity-market returns over the period.
Money → action alignmentcorrelation, not proof of any quid-pro-quo
20% weight
28
Correlation, not proof. In the 2021-2022 cycle Khanna ranked as a top recipient from the Internet (#1), Venture Capital (#1), Securities/Investment (#3) and Computer Software (#4) industries, reflecting his Silicon Valley district, and his sponsored tech and AI-related work overlaps with those donor industries. This concentration is materially offset by his refusal of all PAC and lobbyist money: he was among only six House members to take no PAC money in 2016, founded the No PAC Caucus, and authored the No PAC Act. No quid-pro-quo is asserted.
No public-record evidence was found of campaign or leadership-PAC funds spent on personal-benefit categories such as family meals, clubs, or family payroll. The only relevant enforcement matter is a 2021 FEC settlement in which Khanna's campaign agreed to pay $16,000 over the use of 'RevUp' software that improperly accessed FEC donor data during 2014/2016 campaigns; the FEC found no personal wrongdoing by Khanna and the matter concerned fundraising mechanics, not personal-use spending.
No public-record evidence was found of immediate family members lobbying or contracting tied to Khanna's office, of a notable staff-to-lobbyist pipeline, or of post-office lobbying (he remains in office). His brother is reported to be an assistant U.S. attorney, not a lobbyist, and Khanna has advocated a lifetime lobbying ban for former members.
Khanna has a strong attendance record despite being a prolific fundraiser. Per GovTrack, from January 2017 to June 2026 he missed only 42 of 4,987 roll-call votes (0.8%), better than the ~2.1% median among members. No evidence indicates fundraising or paid speeches displaced his voting duties.
Sources behind this score: 5 news reporting · 2 data aggregator · 4 reference database · 1 official record. Score = weighted average of the components that have data; the 1 without sourced evidence are excluded, never counted against the member. Methodology →
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