Ro Khanna publicly backed Aisha Farooqi’s run for Congress in Michigan and then helped turn a campaign moment into a lighter piece of political theater over the weekend. Khanna reposted Farooqi’s video on X, where the two traded jokes about Shah Rukh Khan, samosas and chai while framing the exchange as a cross-community endorsement.
The repost gave fresh attention to a candidate trying to break through in Michigan's 11th Congressional District. Farooqi wrote that she and Khanna, both lawyers and members of the South Asian community, had spent Saturday talking about film, food and politics, and Khanna amplified it with the caption, “My name is Khan is one of my favorite movies!”
Khanna had already endorsed Farooqi’s congressional campaign, saying on Facebook that Aisha for Congress had spent her career standing up for working families in Michigan. He also said her campaign needed her progressive voice, her commitment to justice and economic fairness, and her commitment to human rights in Congress. The video he reposted made that backing feel less like a formal statement and more like a personal, public nudge.
That same clip showed how casually the two moved between identity and politics. Khanna said, “And now we have an Indian American endorsing a Pakistani American,” then added, “That’s what this country is all about.” Farooqi asked him to choose between Shah Rukh Khan and Salman Khan; he picked Shah Rukh Khan. She chose Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge as her favorite Shah Rukh Khan film, and they worked through rapid-fire choices on samosas or pakoras, lassi or chai, Bollywood or Hollywood, and cricket or basketball.
The contrast is part of what made the moment stand out. Khanna has recently used a much sharper tone in public, warning corporate leaders and pushing a progressive message that includes Medicare for All, universal child care, stronger union protections and higher taxes on billionaires and trillionaires. Against that backdrop, the Saturday exchange with Farooqi was unusually breezy — a political endorsement wrapped in shared culture rather than pressure.
For Farooqi, the repost matters because it puts a sitting member of Congress in front of her campaign at a time when visibility can help. What Khanna’s support changes in Michigan is still the unanswered part, but the message is clear: he has put his name and his platform behind her, and he has done it in a way that makes the race harder to ignore.
