Honda, Mike, 1941-

Michael Makoto Honda (born June 27, 1941) is an American politician. A member of the Democratic Party, he served in Congress representing California's 15th and 17th congressional districts from 2001 to 2017.

Born in Walnut Creek, California, he and his family were sent to Camp Amache, a Japanese American internment camp in southeastern Colorado when he was a year old. In 1953 his family returned to California, where they became strawberry sharecroppers in Blossom Valley in San Jose. Honda started at Andrew P. Hill High School, then transferred to, and graduated from, San Josė High Academy. He entered San Josė State University, but interrupted his studies from 1965 to 1967 to serve in the United States Peace Corps in El Salvador, where he learned to speak Spanish. He returned to San Jose State, where in 1968 he received a bachelor's degree in Biological Sciences and Spanish. He earned a master's degree in Education from San Jose State in 1974. In his 30-year career as an educator, Honda was a science teacher, a principal at two public schools, a school board member, and he conducted educational research at Stanford University. In 1971, San Jose Mayor Norman Mineta appointed Honda to the city's Planning Commission. In 1981, Honda was elected to the San Jose Unified School Board. He was elected to the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors in 1990, and to the California State Assembly in 1996, where he served until 2001.

In 2000, Honda was elected to the first of eight terms in the U.S. House of Representatives from California's 15th district; it was renumbered the 17th after the 2010 Census. On the Hill he developed a reputation as a coalition builder, serving as the chairman of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, where he worked on immigration policy. Honda championed lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender rights while in Congress. He created the Anti-Bullying Caucus and the Transgender Equality Task Force in his fight to protect those who faced discrimination, such as his transgender grandchild. He also helped found the LGBT Equality Caucus. Honda pursued the interests of his tech-savvy district and fought for improved support for nanotechnology. With new technology came new security gaps, so Honda pressed for more funding to protect individual identities and guard America’s computer grid, including the Cyber Security Research and Development Act. He advocated for the expansion of health coverage for all through the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and was a big proponent of the public option.

In 2014, Honda narrowly bested Ro Khanna in the state's top-two primary. He became the subject of an ethics investigation by the United States House Committee on Ethics in 2015 for alleged use of taxpayer resources to bolster his 2014 re-election campaign. After being edged out by Khanna in the 2016 top-two primary, Honda decisively lost to Khanna that November.