State Sen. Aisha Wahab and BART board director Melissa Hernandez face off in the 14th District race to complete Eric Swalwell’s term, which has divided Democrats.
BART board director Melissa Hernandez (left) and state Sen. Aisha Wahab (right) are facing off in a special election to fill the House seat vacated by Eric Swalwell. (Courtesy of Melissa Hernandez; Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
State Sen. Aisha Wahab narrowly leads BART board director Melissa Hernandez in a fractious special election for Congress in the East Bay that will decide who will temporarily fill the seat formerly held by disgraced Rep. Eric Swalwell.
The race between Wahab and Hernandez, both Democrats, interrupted the typically sleepy summer months for voters in Fremont, Hayward and the Tri-Valley. Though Wahab topped a June primary field by a wide margin, millions of dollars of outside spending have poured into the district — throwing Democratic divisions over Israel and party leadership into stark relief.
In initial returns on Tuesday night, Wahab was ahead of Hernandez 51% to 49% — a lead of fewer than 2,000 votes.
The infighting is unlikely to end with this week’s results. While the winner of the special election will complete Swalwell’s term through the end of the year, Wahab and Hernandez will again face off on the November general election ballot for a full two-year term.
In the nine-week sprint since the primary for the special election, the race has turned into a proxy war for larger divides between moderate and progressive Democrats, said David McCuan, political science professor at Sonoma State University.
“You see a lot of outside money, a lot of outside influences, and you see a battle between two seasoned, smart politicians that isn’t settled this week,” McCuan said.
Wahab, a former Hayward City Council member, has represented the area in the state Senate since 2023. In her run for Congress, she has the backing of the California Democratic Party, the California Federation of Labor Unions and the progressive advocacy group Our Revolution.
Before serving on BART’s board of directors, Hernandez was a councilmember in Dublin and mayor until 2024. She has been endorsed by NewDems, a political group that works to elect moderate Democrats, and nearly a dozen members of California’s Democratic congressional delegation.
United Democracy Project, which cannot coordinate directly with Hernandez’s campaign, has spent $2.4 million to boost Hernandez and sink Wahab. The group has also sent money to BOLD America, another super PAC that has spent over $2 million to help Hernandez.
As she cast her ballot on Tuesday in Castro Valley, Leslie Hall bemoaned the polarizing political moment.
“The divisiveness that we have right now is mind-blowing,” Hall said. “What happened to love?”
KQED’s Jose Velazquez contributed to this report. This story will continue to be updated.
