California House District 17 2026: the ads, and who's paying for them
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Ro Khanna (Democrat) and Ritesh Tandon (Republican) are the nominees for California's 17th congressional district in the November 3, 2026 general election. Ro Khanna is the incumbent. By their latest FEC reports, Ro Khanna's campaign had raised $15.3 million (through October 14, 2026) and Ritesh Tandon's campaign $57,000 (through October 14, 2026). Outside groups have reported $418 for Ro Khanna and $38,000 against.
Ro Khanna (DEM, incumbent), Ritesh Tandon (REP).
2 others filed with the FEC; any ads they ran are below. 0 ads analyzed, 0 with at least one technique in the copy.
Newest first. The paid-for-by line is the advertiser's own filing.
Also on every California ballot: 14 statewide ballot measures → The ballot wording and the official arguments, read for rhetorical techniques.
How to vote in California
From California's official election office. Each line links to the official page it came from.
Checked October 8, 2026. Rules can change; confirm with the official site before you go.
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Money in this race
From FEC filings for 2025–26. Outside spending is money a group spends on its own about a candidate — TV and online ads, mail, canvassing. It is not a donation to the campaign, and the candidate does not control it. Supporting means it was spent to help that candidate win; Opposing means it was spent to defeat them, usually on attack ads. Groups report it within 24 or 48 hours as the election nears. Raised is the campaign's own fundraising, as of its latest quarterly report. Largest donors come from each outside spender's own FEC receipts, with each donor's share of its itemized receipts; donors under $100,000 are not named. People are shown with the employer and occupation they reported. A donor that is itself a political committee is shown with its own largest donors. Companies and nonprofits don't report their funders to the FEC, so the trail ends there, and the page says so.
Ro Khanna (DEM, incumbent)
- Raised
- $15.3M through 2026-10-14
individuals $14.3M · PACs $1,000 · cash on hand $16.6M
- Outside spending
- $38K opposing Khanna · $418 supporting Khanna · latest reported 2026-05-30
- Largest outside spenders
- VIABLE PAC
— $38K opposing Khanna
SOUTH BAY AFL-CIO LABOR COUNCIL
— $258 supporting Khanna
THE PEOPLE UNITED PAC
— $150 supporting Khanna
SIERRA CLUB INDEPENDENT ACTION
— $10 supporting Khanna
- Bundled through PACs
- $44K through 2 PACs · FEC bulk data of 2026-11-01
JSTREETPAC
— $40K from 40 gifts
Lobbyist/registrant PAC
A NEW POLICY PAC
— $3,500 from 1 gift
2 PACs gave directly — alphabetical; the legal limit is $5,000 per election
- COURAGE TO ACT $500
- LAURA CAPPS FOR SBC SUPERVISOR 2026 $500
All filings at the FEC ↗
Ritesh Tandon (REP)
- Raised
- $57K through 2026-10-14
individuals $57K · PACs $0 · candidate's own money, incl. loans $25 · cash on hand $5,227
- Outside spending
- none reported
- Bundled through PACs
- none reported · FEC bulk data of 2026-11-01
All filings at the FEC ↗
No campaign ads analyzed for this race yet.
What this page is
- An ad is on this page because its own "Paid for by" line is a campaign in this race; or it comes from a national Senate group and ran mostly in CA; or it ran mostly in CA and names a candidate — unless its sponsor is a campaign for some other office. Ads from outside groups appear alongside the campaigns' own.
- Campaigns run one text as many separate ads. Identical text from the same sponsor is one card here, marked with its number of variants.
- A technique is a specific rhetorical move in the wording, found by our model and explained in one line. It is not a claim that the ad is false.
- Claims are checked when a reader asks: press "Check this ad's claims" on a card. Running a check and seeing its verdicts are part of Semblen Pro, because each check costs money to run; anyone can see which claims an ad makes. The ten ads with the most money behind them in each race are checked ahead of time.
- Claim verdicts say what the cited sources say. A verdict that an ad is wrong or misleading is shown only when it cites an established fact-checker or an institutional record — Congress, a federal agency, a court — and its confidence is not low; a weaker one is not shown at all. Each verdict shows what it rests on and how confident it is. If we got one wrong, press Disagree: a verdict that readers dispute and no one defends comes down.
- Video ads come from the campaigns' own YouTube channels; the transcript is analyzed. Meta ads are analyzed on their text; their video and images are not, yet.