Democratic state Sen. Aisha Wahab won a special election runoff for a California congressional seat, narrowly defeating fellow Democrat Melissa Hernandez after a prolonged vote count in a race to replace former Rep. Eric Swalwell.

Wahab’s win in California’s heavily Democratic 14th Congressional District sends the progressive state lawmaker to Washington to serve the remainder of Swalwell’s term, which ends in January.

The outcome was not immediately clear after polls closed Tuesday, as election officials continued processing mail ballots in Alameda County. Wahab held a narrow advantage in early returns, but the margin remained close enough that the race could not be called until additional ballots were counted and it became clear Hernandez could not overcome the deficit. California elections frequently take days to resolve because ballots postmarked by Election Day can arrive afterward and still be counted.

The extended wait marked a dramatic finish to a contest Wahab had previously dominated. She finished more than 20 percentage points ahead of Hernandez in both the special primary and the regularly scheduled June primary, but the runoff tightened considerably after millions of dollars in outside spending poured into the race.

Wahab, the California Senate’s assistant majority leader, campaigned as the more progressive candidate, emphasizing housing affordability, health care and the high cost of living in the district. She has called for expanding affordable housing and renter protections, raising the federal minimum wage and cracking down on price gouging and corporate monopolies. She also supports Medicare for All and protections for Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. Wahab has called for abolishing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, arguing that the agency should be replaced with a system focused on immigration services rather than enforcement.

Wahab was elected to the California Senate in 2022 after previously serving on the Hayward City Council. Her 2018 council victory made her the first Afghan American woman elected to public office in the United States. 

Hernandez, president of the Bay Area Rapid Transit board and a former mayor of Dublin, positioned herself as the more moderate candidate, emphasizing public safety, small-business growth and efforts to lower costs for middle- and working-class families. The two Democrats also faced sharp divisions over the Israel-Hamas war, an issue that drew significant outside spending into the race.

The special election was triggered by Swalwell’s resignation from Congress in April after allegations of sexual assault and misconduct surfaced. Swalwell, who had represented the East Bay for seven terms and had been running for California governor, denied the allegations but said remaining in Congress would be unfair to his constituents. Over the weekend, the FBI seized Swalwell’s phone and raided his Washington, D.C., home amid the ongoing investigation into allegations, MS NOW reported.

Wahab and Hernandez emerged from an 11-candidate special primary in June to advance to Tuesday’s runoff. Because both are Democrats, the seat was guaranteed to remain in the party’s hands.

But Wahab’s tenure in Washington could initially be brief. Since the win only gives her the seat only through the end of the current congressional term, the November election will determine who represents the district for the next two years.

That means the rivalry is not over: Wahab and Hernandez will meet at the ballot box once again this fall.

The post Aisha Wahab wins special election to fill Swalwell’s former House seat appeared first on MS NOW.

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From MS Now.