Aisha Wahab wins California special House election

Democratic state Sen. Aisha Wahab has won a closely watched special election for California’s 14th Congressional District, defeating fellow Democrat Melissa Hernandez after a bitter intraparty fight shaped in its final weeks by heavy outside spending tied to the pro-Israel American Israel Public Affairs Committee.

NBC News and The Associated Press projected Wahab the winner. She will fill the seat vacated by former Rep. Eric Swalwell, who resigned from Congress in April after facing allegations of sexual misconduct. Swalwell has denied the allegations.

Wahab, a progressive state senator from the East Bay, led Hernandez 53% to 47% with 95% of the expected vote counted, according to NBC News. The Guardian reported that with 92% of votes counted Thursday afternoon, Wahab was ahead by just over six points. CBS News, citing new totals from the Alameda County Registrar of Voters, reported that Wahab’s lead had become insurmountable with ballots still left to count.

The result was much closer than the June 16 primary, when Wahab took 43% of the vote to Hernandez’s 17%. Because no candidate won a majority, the race advanced to a one-on-one contest between the two Democrats.

Hernandez serves on the Bay Area Rapid Transit Board of Directors and is president of the agency’s board, according to The Guardian. Wahab entered the race as the widely viewed frontrunner and had the support of the California Democratic Party, Our Revolution, labor unions, local officials and state Attorney General Rob Bonta. She was elected to the California Senate in 2022 to represent the 10th District, which includes parts of the East Bay and Silicon Valley, including Hayward, Fremont, Milpitas, Sunnyvale, San Jose and Santa Clara.

Outside spending became a central issue as super PACs connected to AIPAC poured money into the race. NBC News reported that an AIPAC-aligned super PAC spent about $2.5 million against Wahab in the final weeks. The Guardian reported that super PACs had spent more than $5 million in a matter of weeks on pro-Hernandez ads and attacks on Wahab, and that Track AIPAC, a group that monitors the lobby’s funding of U.S. politicians, said the spending reached nearly $6.4 million to support Hernandez.

Wahab has said Israel’s conduct in its war against Hamas in Gaza is genocide. Her campaign website criticized “AIPAC-linked dark-money PACs” trying to “tear Aisha Wahab down.” Hernandez was the only candidate at an April forum who did not answer “yes” when asked whether Israel was committing genocide, NBC News reported.

Wahab, the first Muslim woman and Afghan American elected to the California Legislature, told The Guardian that the surge of critical ads misrepresented her record. She described the super PAC involvement as election interference and said the groups were trying to buy the seat.

The contest also exposed divisions among California Democrats. Rep. Zoe Lofgren, chair of the state’s Democratic congressional delegation, endorsed Hernandez, saying Wahab had not backed an effort to elect a caretaker candidate to fill Swalwell’s seat as quickly as possible. Amar Shergill, a former chair of the progressive caucus of the California Democratic Party, told Politico that Lofgren’s actions were “astounding,” The Guardian reported.

Wahab will represent the district until January 2027, according to CBS News. Alameda County voters will vote again in November for the same seat to decide who serves the next full term, with the same candidates on the ballot. Early voting and vote-by-mail begin Oct. 5, and Election Day is Nov. 3.