California lawmaker Aisha Wahab wins special election to succeed Eric Swalwell in Congress

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California lawmaker Aisha Wahab secured victory Thursday in a special election to serve the rest of former Rep. Eric Swalwell’s House term, which ends in January.

Swalwell, a Democrat who was running for California governor, ended his campaign and resigned from Congress in April after he was accused of sexual assault and harassment. He has denied the allegations.

Wahab defeated Bay Area Rapid Transit Director Melissa Hernandez in the special election in the state’s 14th Congressional District, which covers parts of Alameda County on the eastern side of the San Francisco Bay.

Wahab has championed housing affordability and access. She also wrote a bill in 2023 to ban caste-based discrimination, which garnered national attention. Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed it, saying such discrimination is already outlawed by civil rights protections.

Wahab became the first Afghan American elected to public office in the U.S. when she won a Hayward City Council seat in 2018. She’ll be the first Afghan American to serve in Congress.

The conclusion of the race to replace Swalwell comes as criminal investigations continue into the sexual assault allegations he faces.

Over the weekend, federal agents seized electronic devices from Swalwell at the San Francisco airport and later searched his home in Washington D.C., according to a person familiar with the matter who was not authorized to publicly discuss an ongoing investigation and spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Swalwell’s attorney did not immediately respond to an email and phone message seeking comment.