Rep. Ro Khanna convenes 100 tech leaders as he warns of defections to Trump and the GOP

For years, House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi hosted top donors, members of Congress and other political bigwigs at a swanky resort in the Napa Valley of California for her two-day issues conference.

This year, Pelosi, a Democrat from San Francisco, is passing the baton to a Bay Area colleague, Rep. Ro Khanna, who represents parts of Silicon Valley and is a leading progressive voice on tech, manufacturing and other economic issues.

On Friday evening, Khanna will kick off his Innovation Leadership Circle Retreat, a two-day gathering in Napa Valley that will feature a keynote speech from Pelosi herself, as well as talks by Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr and former White House chief of staff Ron Klain, according to a copy of the schedule obtained by NBC News.

This year’s retreat, at a Yountville resort, will have a much heavier tech focus, Khanna said, as Democrats try to remain “the party of the future” and prevent tech leaders from defecting to former President Donald Trump and other candidates, like Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Khanna wants to ensure that the “Democratic Party can stay the party of the future, be the party of innovation, be the party of entrepreneurship,” he said in a phone interview as he prepared for the gathering. “I want to make sure that we are the party that’s seen as helping intergenerational wealth creation, that we’re seen as the party leading on the economy.”

One hundred tech leaders are expected to attend, Khanna’s team said, including billionaire venture capitalist Vinod Khosla, Max Schireson and Deirdre Lyell, former Facebook executive Paul Grewal and former PayPal President and CEO Dan Schulman.

According to the schedule, the retreat begins with a welcome party and dinner featuring Kerr,