Aisha Wahab wins California special election for former Swalwell seat

California state senator Aisha Wahab won a special election for the US House seat vacated by former representative Eric Swalwell, securing a place in Congress after a closely contested Democratic race in the East Bay.

With 95% of ballots counted by August 20, 2026, Wahab led Melissa Hernandez by slightly more than six percentage points. The election was held on August 18 to fill the remainder of Swalwell’s term after he resigned in April following sexual misconduct allegations, which he has denied.

Wahab had entered the contest as the frontrunner. She won the special-election primary by more than 20 points and received support from the California Democratic Party, labor unions, local officials, the progressive group Our Revolution and state Attorney General Rob Bonta.

The general contest narrowed after political action committees linked to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee spent millions of dollars supporting Hernandez and opposing Wahab. Hernandez, president of the Bay Area Rapid Transit board, said after the result that she was proud of her campaign.

Wahab is the first Muslim woman and Afghan American elected to the California legislature. In a statement after her congressional victory, she pledged to represent the district where she was raised.

Her election fills the vacancy for the final months of Swalwell’s term. The outcome also illustrates the influence of outside spending in a race that became substantially closer than the primary result had suggested.