Democratic California state legislator Wahab wins US House of Representatives seat
State Senator Aisha Wahab, a Democratic candidate for Congress in California’s 14th district, speaks during a primary election night event on Aug 18, 2026, in Hayward, California. (File photo: AP/Jeff Chiu)
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WASHINGTON: Democrat Aisha Wahab, a member of the California state Senate, was projected on Thursday (Aug 20) to win a special election to fill a vacant seat in the United States House of Representatives, according to multiple US media outlets.
Wahab defeated Democrat Melissa Hernandez, an official with the San Francisco Bay Area mass transit system.
Once sworn in, Wahab, an Afghan American, will fill the seat that was held by Democratic Representative Eric Swalwell, who resigned in April amid allegations of sexual misconduct, which he denied. That will give Democrats 213 seats in the House, while Republicans will hold 218.
The solidly Democratic district is near San Francisco and San Jose.
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Wahab will be the first Afghan American member of the US Congress. The progressive Democrat was also the first Muslim woman and Afghan American elected to the state legislature.
She had over 53 per cent of the votes while Hernandez secured about 47 per cent with 95 per cent of the votes tallied, according to NBC News.
United Democracy Project, a super PAC of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a pro-Israel lobbying group, spent nearly US$2.5 million since early August to boost Hernandez, according to the Washington Post and multiple other media reports.
The lobbying group has become a focus of criticism in some Democratic primary contests this year during intra-party tensions over candidates’ positions on Israel.
Prominent progressive Democrats have opposed US support for Israel over the US-Israeli war on Iran, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s close ties to Republicans, and particularly over Israeli attacks on Gaza and Lebanon, leading to an erosion of Democratic backing for Washington’s ally.
Wahab and Hernandez will again face each other in November. The winner of that election will hold the congressional seat for a full two-year term.
Wahab, who has positioned herself as a state lawmaker aiming to reduce inequality, had authored a bill that would have made California the first US state to explicitly ban caste discrimination. It was vetoed in 2023 by Governor Gavin Newsom, who said existing laws already banned ancestry discrimination.
Source: Reuters/dc
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