California lawmaker Aisha Wahab secured victory Thursday in a special election to serve the rest of former Rep. Eric Swalwell’s House term, which ends in January. Wahab defeated Bay Area Rapid Transit Director Melissa Hernandez in the 14th Congressional District, which encompasses parts of Alameda County on the eastern side of the San Francisco Bay.
Swalwell, a Democrat who had been running for California governor, resigned from Congress in April after facing accusations of sexual assault and harassment, which he has denied. Wahab’s win comes as criminal investigations into the allegations against Swalwell continue. Federal agents reportedly seized electronic devices from Swalwell at San Francisco airport and later searched his Washington D.C. home.
Wahab has previously championed housing affordability and access. In 2023, she authored a bill to ban caste-based discrimination, which garnered national attention but was vetoed by Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, who stated that such discrimination is already outlawed by existing civil rights protections. Wahab previously made history in 2018 as the first Afghan American elected to public office in the U.S. when she won a Hayward City Council seat.
Wahab and Hernandez are scheduled to compete again in a separate November election to determine who will serve the next full two-year term in Congress. Wahab won the June primary decisively, but reports indicate that groups affiliated with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) spent millions supporting Hernandez and opposing Wahab in the lead-up to the general election.