The race between Rep. Mike Honda and Ro Khanna, two California Democrats vying to represent a Silicon Valley-based congressional district, is a classic example of a generational contest — a youthful challenger claiming to represent the future taking on a popular longtime incumbent.
Taking place as it does in the nation's high-tech mecca — a place that puts a premium on youth — the contest pitting the 72-year-old Honda against Khanna, a 37-year-old intellectual property lawyer, is naturally framed as a contest between the past and the future.
On the big issues like same-sex marriage, abortion, the Affordable Care Act and Social Security, there's not much difference between Honda and Khanna. Style is where they differ.
Honda, in his seventh term, is the unabashed progressive. Shaped like a fire hydrant and soft-spoken for a politician, he's a former school principal and local pol who describes himself, among other things, as a "voice for the voiceless."
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