Ro Khanna ousts incumbent Mike Honda from 17th District seat

Ro Khanna, who defeated incumbent U.S. Rep. Mike Honda in the race for Congressional District 17, speaks at an election night party on Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2016, in Fremont, Calif. At right is his wife Ritu Khanna. Ro Khanna, who defeated incumbent U.S. Rep. Mike Honda in the race for Congressional District 17, speaks at an election night party on Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2016, in Fremont, Calif. At right is his wife Ritu Khanna. Photo: Noah Berger / Special To The Chronicle / / Photo: Noah Berger / Special To The Chronicle / / Image 1 of / 17 Caption Close Ro Khanna ousts incumbent Mike Honda from 17th District seat 1 / 17 Back to Gallery

In the Bay Area’s marquee congressional race, Fremont Democrat Ro Khanna ousted Rep. Mike Honda from the South Bay seat the incumbent has held for the past 16 years.

With 58 percent of precincts reporting, Khanna had a substantial 59.4 percent to 40.6 percent lead over his fellow Democrat in the bid for the 17th Congressional District seat.

“I know it’s a deeply divided national election and it’s easy to become cynical these days, but let us remember our democracy is the most open political system in the world,” Khanna told a raucous crowd at the Royal Palace Banquet Hall in Fremont about 9:30 p.m. Tuesday

The gathering for Honda at Justin’s, a restaurant in Santa Clara, was subdued from the start. The candidate’s spokesman, Vedant Patel, said shortly before 10 p.m. that the campaign would wait for final vote tallies before making a statement on the race.

The race was a repeat of their 2014 contest, when Honda narrowly won over Khanna. This year, by contrast, the challenger brought momentum into the fall campaign with a first-place finish over Honda in the June primary.

It was an often bitter campaign, with Khanna, a 40-year-old attorney, arguing that the 75-year-old Honda was too old and out of touch to represent a district that includes the heart of Silicon Valley. Honda hit back with ads pointing to his 35 years in political office and accusations that Khanna’s campaign had illegally hacked into his campaign files.

The Democrats-only contest had limited national appeal.

John Wildermuth and John King are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: jwildermuth@sfchronicle.com, jking@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @jfwildermuth, @johnkingsfchron