WASHINGTON — Rep. Ro Khanna calls representing Silicon Valley the “first line” of his identity. It’s a statement that rings profoundly true — for better or worse.

The Fremont Democrat’s success has largely come from his ability to fit in with the culture of the tech world. His ability to appeal to some of tech’s wealthiest political donors helped propel his election to Congress over an eight-term Democratic incumbent.

But the same traits that help him connect with the valley are at the root of skepticism he faces as he gains prominence nationally and leans into an independent streak that puts him at odds with some Democratic colleagues. His closeness with the epicenter of American wealth has also raised eyebrows as Khanna takes a progressive line, including joining the presidential campaign of a self-described democratic socialist who laments the “proliferation of millionaires and billionaires” in an unequal society and has embraced calls to break up Facebook.

Much like the titans of Silicon Valley, Khanna is unapologetically ambitious and says his goal is changing the world. His confidence pushes him to take on big challenges — even when trying to weave together seemingly mutually exclusive ideas.

At 42, the second-term congressman’s ease on social media and in front of a camera has made him a fixture on cable news. That quick rise has earned him many national profile pieces, and his decision to co-chair independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders’ campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination has only increased the intrigue.

To his supporters, Khanna is a free thinker who pursues his ideals whether they’re popular or not. To his critics, he’s an opportunist, one who shopped for congressional seats and did whatever he could to win, then adapted his politics to what could help him rise.

Khanna calls himself a “pro-growth progressive” or a “progressive capitalist.” It’s how he reconciles a worldview that combines semi-socialist elements gaining popularity on the left with centrist endorsement of the promise of Silicon Valley’s entrepreneurship.

He’s backed Medicare for All, the Green New Deal and a $15-an-hour minimum wage, but pushes back on calls to break up big tech in favor of a more “nuanced” approach. His pet project on dealing with income inequality isn’t boosting taxes for the rich — it’s traveling to struggling Rust Belt communities in Trump country with venture capitalists from the valley, pushing them to invest.

He has also made an antiwar foreign policy and human rights advocacy a centerpiece of his work, sponsoring legislation to cut off U.S. support for a Saudi-led campaign in Yemen that has caused famine and widespread civilian deaths. The bill passed Congress with bipartisan support, but President Trump vetoed it.

In Khanna’s view, independence is rarely punished and usually rewarded. As a Yale law student, he organized a protest of the school’s law journal, challenging its editing test as a barrier to entry. Then he didn’t join.

“People said, ‘Oh, you’re going to end your legal career,’ and, of course, it made absolutely no difference,” Khanna said.

He got the same reaction in 2004 when, as a 27-year-old with no experience in elective office, he ran against longtime Rep. Tom Lantos to protest the San Mateo Democrat’s vote in favor of the Iraq War. And again when he ran against Rep. Mike Honda, D-San Jose, unsuccessfully in 2014 and successfully in 2016.

“People said, ‘You can’t run against a Holocaust survivor — you’re going to end your career,’ and if anything, Lantos became a mentor,” Khanna said. “When I ran against Honda, people said, ‘You can’t do that — you’re going to end your career,’ and they were wrong.”

Being bold is never a career-ending move, “as long as you’re civil and try not to make it personal,” Khanna said. “If anything, people respect you more.”

Khanna grew up in Philadelphia, the birthplace of what he calls “the American scriptures” written by the nation’s founders. The child of middle-class Indian immigrants, Khanna says he was heavily influenced by the local monuments to American democracy. He was also shaped by the experiences of his grandfather, an activist with Gandhi’s independence movement in India who was jailed for several years for his work.

Khanna was a top student at the University of Chicago, graduating with a degree in economics. Even then, he would speak of his grandfather, “march to the beat of his own drum” and talk about changing the world, said college and law school friend Renato Mariotti, a former federal prosecutor.

“He’s always been an ambitious person who wanted to make some big impact,” Mariotti said. “I always presumed that he either had something to do with public service or some other grand path.”

Khanna then moved to Silicon Valley. He saw it as a “microcosm” of America and noted the well-established Indian American community — complete with cricket leagues. Khanna worked in intellectual property law and made his challenge to Lantos.

He was walloped, but he impressed powerful Bay Area Democrats including Reps. Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco and Anna Eshoo of Palo Alto. Five years later, they helped him get an appointment in President Barack Obama’s Commerce Department, promoting the U.S. in international trade.

Christine Pelosi, daughter of Nancy Pelosi and chair of the California Democratic Party’s Women’s Caucus, said Khanna helped his cause by promoting the party’s interests even after he lost.

“He had a lot of smarts, lot of talent, very good communications skills, a lot of discipline, and he did a lot of networking,” Pelosi said. “He was more than just a volunteer who called people up and asked for checks. He asked for ideas.”

Eshoo said Khanna was “crushed” emotionally after his loss. She told him it was just a beginning.

Khanna, who calls Eshoo a “true mentor,” recalls that her advice was, “Don’t go away. Stay involved, stay engaged.”

When Al Gore won the Nobel Peace Prize for his environmental advocacy, she said, “See, this is why you have to play things out,” Khanna said. “Even though he lost the presidency, he didn’t give up on public service. And then he arguably achieved something equally significant.”

Khanna did run again, challenging Honda in 2014. Backed financially by tech titans, he emphasized his ability to speak to and for Silicon Valley, and lost narrowly. In 2016, he campaigned on more policy than just tech and, aided by an ethics investigation of Honda, won by more than 20 points.

Through 2018, he was still attracting centrist and solidly Republican donors, including D.C. lobbyist Wayne Berman, who is closely tied to President Trump. But his political profile has been strongly progressive, and he’s vice chairman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus.

At the same time, Khanna’s pet cause has taken him to economically distressed places in Kentucky, West Virginia, Michigan, Ohio, Iowa, North Carolina and South Carolina. Khanna partners with local lawmakers to bring venture capitalists and Silicon Valley representatives to meet with local businesses and universities to form partnerships.

Rep. Dan Kildee, D-Mich., hosted Khanna last year in Flint, Mich., where problems with lead-contaminated water became infamous in 2014.

“There was a moment when Flint was in the spotlight all the time, and we knew that the recovery effort was going to be more than just the government itself stepping up,” Kildee said. “We need private investment. ... I think it’s more a statement of his values that he understood we really needed help.”

Ohio Democratic Rep. Tim Ryan, who helped organize some of the tours, said Khanna has a unique ability to blend progressivism with the benefits of capital investments.

“He’s so progressive, but he totally gets the new economy,” Ryan said. “There’s very few people in the Congress that really understand both.”

But Khanna’s balancing act of the left and center has others rolling their eyes — though none will go on the record. His critics see a politician with his finger in the wind, believing he ran to Honda’s right in 2014 and, when it became more expedient, tacked left.

Khanna even “dual-endorsed,” as he puts it, in a 2018 primary race involving a colleague in the House Democratic leadership. Khanna first backed former New York Rep. Joe Crowley, then endorsed Crowley’s now-famous challenger, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, saying he had learned more about her and found her compelling.

Rep. Jared Huffman of San Rafael says he has a good relationship with his fellow Bay Area Democrat. But he knows of colleagues perturbed by Khanna’s willingness to help candidates affiliated with the Justice Democrats, a group aligned with Ocasio-Cortez that is targeting incumbents for primary challenges from the left.

“I think it remains kind of an open question for some members: Is he going to be a colleague that we can work with and trust, or is he out to get me?” Huffman said. “We’ve got some colleagues that are pretty skeptical and nervous about him.”

Much like the young disruptors who built Silicon Valley, Khanna speaks the language of risk. He considers the fights he has gotten into “justified.” Khanna took on Rep. Frank Pallone, D-N.J., in a Twitter thread, accusing the House Energy and Commerce Committee chairman of holding up Khanna’s bills because he supported Ocasio-Cortez’s Green New Deal. Pallone’s office did not respond to requests for comment.

Khanna also defends endorsing a primary challenger to an antiabortion Illinois colleague, Democratic Rep. Dan Lipinski. And he’s battling with Illinois Rep. Cheri Bustos, who runs the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, over her move to punish political firms that work with primary challengers to incumbents.

But Khanna says he’s also willing to admit a mistake — like when he endorsed the primary opponent of Rep. William Lacy Clay, D-Mo., without realizing who she was running against.

Clay said he accepted Khanna’s apology. Being willing to own up to a judgment error, he said, “tells you about a person’s humanity and their compassion, and he possesses both of those qualities.”

“I try to be very civil,” Khanna said. “I try to avoid excessive rhetoric, even when criticizing the president. ... And I don’t like personalizing things.”

Khanna acknowledges that his 2014 race against Honda could have given observers the impression he was more moderate, but says he believes he course-corrected and campaigned as an authentic progressive in 2016.

“Mike Honda and I were competing for independent Republican votes, and you know, there were probably mailers, one or two mailers sent that I regretted sending even two weeks after the campaign,” Khanna said, chalking it up to “tactical mistakes” rather than an expression of his values.

Lisa Ferino, a progressive with Indivisible South Bay, said Khanna is “an incredibly mixed bag for a lot of people,” though she knows activists who fall on both sides. She wishes Khanna would be more aggressive in attacking Trump and supporting impeachment and would be clearer about what his work with Sanders entails.

“If he does go all in for Bernie ... I don’t think he’s made it clear to his constituents why that’s something that’s so important for him to do right now,” Ferino said.

Khanna’s affiliation with Sanders has some of his Silicon Valley tech benefactors scratching their heads, though he says no donors have pulled their support. Many backed Hillary Clinton and have lingering hard feelings over Sanders’ race against her in 2016. Others are apprehensive about Sanders’ criticism of wealth and capitalism.

“I think that’s taken some people by surprise — (there’s a) difference of both substance and style” between the two men, said Carl Guardino, CEO of the business-oriented Silicon Valley Leadership Group.

“Congressman Khanna is very warm,” Guardino said. “Even when there are areas of disagreement, he listens and learns and tries to truly hear people out, and Sen. Sanders’ style is much more aggressive and dogmatic.”

Khanna said his role with Sanders is largely to be a surrogate on the campaign trail. He has pledged not to attack other Democratic candidates.

Christine Pelosi said she believes Khanna could be a bridge-builder between Sanders and the party as the primary campaign plays out. He may have to be, she said.

“That will be his biggest test yet ... but he’s up to the challenge,” she said.

While his affiliation with Sanders has some suspecting he’s interested in higher office, Khanna said he’s staying put unless the job gets tiresome. He calls representing Silicon Valley “one of the 10 most important jobs in American politics,” and compares it to representing Athens at the peak of ancient Greece.

“It’s not for a lack of ambition that I’m shy about doing something else,” Khanna said.

He welcomes the suggestion of some close to Silicon Valley donors that they supported him because they recognized something of themselves in him.

“They were forced out of companies or fired because they didn’t look the part to be a CEO. They had too different-sounding a name, they didn’t have broad shoulders or a square jaw,” Khanna said. “I had the same story as a lot of entrepreneurs, where they go all in on something and they’re willing to go into debt and have that kind of all-consuming passion on a dream.”

In fact, Khanna said one of the “highest compliments” he ever received was from center-right New York Times columnist David Brooks, who called him a political entrepreneur.

“If people said, ‘You know, Ro Khanna ... was a real policy entrepreneur, political entrepreneur, who was willing to question orthodoxies, willing to take on challenges, but advanced ideas that really improved the public debate,’ I think that would be a success,” Khanna said. “Then I want a few concrete achievements. Things that I could say have really impacted the nation or the world.”

Tal Kopan is The San Francisco Chronicle’s Washington correspondent. Email: tal.kopan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @talkopan