California has made history by electing the first Afghan-American member of the U.S. Congress, after progressive state senator Aisha Wahab overcame a $2.5 million opposition campaign funded by major pro-Israel lobbying group AIPAC to claim victory in a tight congressional runoff.
State election officials declared Wahab the winner of California’s 14th Congressional District runoff on Thursday, 48 hours after polls closed. The Bay Area district, which stretches along the northern edge of San Jose and includes the populous cities of Fremont and Hayward, became an unexpected political battleground after the seat was vacated earlier this year.
The vacancy opened when former Democratic Congressman Eric Swalwell resigned in the wake of public sexual misconduct allegations. His unexpired term runs through January 2025, meaning Wahab will first serve out the remaining months of that term before competing in the November 2024 general election to win a full two-year term of her own in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Wahab, 39, advanced to the runoff alongside her opponent, moderate candidate Melissa Hernandez, after neither candidate hit the required 50% vote threshold in the state’s June nonpartisan primary. Neither candidate centered the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in their platforms; both campaigns focused heavily on local affordability issues that rank as top priorities for Bay Area voters. But the race drew heavy outside spending after AIPAC invested $2.5 million in negative attack ads targeting Wahab, who has publicly stated that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. The lobbying group threw its full support behind Hernandez, who has repeatedly affirmed that Israel “has a right to defend itself.”
Wahab’s upset victory marks the second high-profile win for a progressive Muslim candidate over massive pro-Israel outside spending in 2024. Just two weeks prior, Michigan’s Abdul el-Sayed, an Egyptian-American progressive, won the state’s Democratic U.S. Senate primary after overcoming a $50 million opposition campaign from pro-Israel advocacy groups that sought to block his nomination.
This historic win adds another milestone to Wahab’s political career. In 2002, she made history as California’s first Afghan and Muslim state senator, and her personal story is deeply rooted in the district she now represents. Born in New York City, Wahab lost both of her parents during childhood and was raised by an Afghan foster family in the 14th District. Speaking to supporters after her victory, she framed the win as a rebuke to corporate and special interest money that increasingly dominates U.S. electoral politics.