A Progressive State Senator Beats Roughly $5 Million in AIPAC-Aligned Spending to Win Eric Swalwell’s Old Seat — and Aisha Wahab Becomes the First Afghan American Elected to Congress
The Associated Press called California's 14th District special election for state Sen. Aisha Wahab on Thursday, August 20, 2026, two days after polls closed, with Wahab leading fellow Democrat Melissa Hernandez 53 percent to 47 percent with more than 95 percent of the vote counted. Wahab will serve the remainder of former Rep. Eric Swalwell's term, which runs through January 2027; Swalwell resigned in April 2026 amid sexual misconduct allegations he denies. Wahab becomes the first Afghan American elected to the U.S. Congress. She had already been the first Afghan American to hold elected office in the United States, winning a Hayward City Council seat in 2018, and the first Muslim woman and first Afghan American in the California Legislature. The race drew unusually heavy outside money for a special election. The United Democracy Project, the super PAC aligned with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, spent roughly $2.5 million against Wahab in the final weeks alone, with reported totals across AIPAC-aligned entities running to about $5 million or more. Wahab, who has called Israel's conduct in Gaza a genocide and supports ending U.S. military aid to Israel, made the spending itself a campaign issue and described the advertising as "$5m of lies." Hernandez, the president of the BART Board of Directors and a former mayor of Dublin, conceded and said she hopes for a different outcome in November, when the two are set to face each other again for the full two-year term under a newly redistricted map. Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) congratulated Wahab on what he called a "decisive victory." Reps. Nancy Pelosi and Pete Aguilar had earlier lobbied Wahab against running.
“Congratulations Aisha Wahab on your decisive victory. I look forward to working with you on Medicare for All, a living wage, and ending the war in Iran.”