Ro Khanna faces tech backlash over wealth tax
Democrat Rep. Ro Khanna has embraced a wealth tax in his home state of California, and his longtime allies in Silicon Valley are now threatening to abandon him.
California labor groups are trying to add a proposal for a statewide tax on billionaires to the November ballot. The proposal is causing a rift among Democrats and enraging some in the tech community, who warn they will leave the state if the measure is adopted.
Khanna last week reacted to the potential exodus in a social media post, saying he echoes what President Franklin Delano Roosevelt said with “sarcasm of economic royalists when they threatened to leave, ‘I will miss them very much.'”
The post prompted not only criticism from tech leaders but also calls for Khanna to be primaried.
“Ro has done a speed run alienating every moderate I know who has supported him. Including myself,” wrote Martin Casado, a partner at venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, in a post on X. “At least that makes voting him the f— out all the more gratifying.”
Garry Tan, CEO of startup accelerator Y Combinator, wrote it’s “Time to primary him.”
Associates of Andreessen Horowitz and Y Combinator are among the top donors to Khanna’s congressional campaign committee, according to recent campaign finance disclosures.
The proposed ballot measure, dubbed the 2026 Billionaire Tax Act, is being pushed by the Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West labor union. If enacted, it…