Ritesh Tandon
Candidate for U.S. Representative, Congressional District 17
Ritesh Tandon is a Republican. He is running for the U.S. House in California's 17th Congressional District. The district covers parts of San Jose, Sunnyvale, Santa Clara, and Cupertino. It also covers Milpitas, Fremont, and Newark. He holds a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering. It came from L.D. College of Engineering in India. He earned a master's degree in computer engineering (2001) from Santa Clara University. He also earned an MBA there (2007). According to Ballotpedia, he spent 11 years at Cisco Systems. There he worked on the design of IP phones. He has served as CEO of Kricel Corporation. He has been a research fellow at UC Berkeley's Haas School of Business. He has also held leadership roles with several groups. Those include the Smart Village Movement and the Sankara Eye Foundation. Tandon was the named plaintiff in Tandon v. Newsom. That 2021 U.S. Supreme Court case dealt with COVID-era restrictions on religious gatherings in California. He ran for this seat against Ro Khanna, the Democratic incumbent, in 2020 and 2022. He lost both of those general elections. After the June 2026 primary, he advanced to the November 2026 general election. He again faces Rep. Khanna. His campaign site stresses affordability and a lower cost of living. It also calls for reducing the tax and regulatory burden on small businesses. Home: San Jose, California. Occupation: business executive (CEO, Kricel Corporation). Prior office: none held. He ran without success for this seat in 2020 and 2022, and reportedly in a different primary in 2024. He is not an incumbent.
On the issues
- Economy & Jobs
Supports making California more business-friendly, preventing companies from leaving the state, and simplifying taxation for small businesses.
Source → - Taxes & Cost of Living
Favors lowering taxes and the cost of living, opposes wealth taxes, and supports reducing the federal deficit through cutting bureaucratic waste.
Source → - Health & Health Care
Opposes a Medicare for All-style single-payer system, favoring market competition, drug-import reform, price transparency, and increasing the supply of health care providers.
Source → - Immigration & Border
Supports securing the border using technology, ending 'catch-and-release' policies, and supporting skilled-worker immigration, while also proposing to remove per-country immigration quota restrictions.
Source → - Reproductive & Social Issues
Supports religious liberty protections, having served as plaintiff in the Supreme Court case Tandon v. Newsom challenging COVID-era restrictions on religious gatherings; no specific public position on abortion was found.
Source → - Education & Schools
Opposes race-based college admissions policies and what he characterizes as critical race theory in curricula, favors merit-based education and parental involvement, and separately calls for higher teacher compensation and expanded school funding.
Source → - Environment, Energy & Climate
Frames environmental protection primarily through technological innovation rather than regulation.
Source → - Government, Elections & Democracy
Supports imposing eight-year term limits for members of Congress and banning members of Congress from trading individual stocks.
Source → - Technology & Privacy
Supports mandating AI literacy education in K-12 schools and fast-tracking permits for data centers and semiconductor facilities; no specific position on data privacy or antitrust for major tech companies was found.
Source →
Profiles are compiled from the candidate’s own statements and public records. We never tell you how to vote.