Aisha Wahab poised to become first Afghan American US congresswoman

Democrat Aisha Wahab has won a special election in California, putting her on course to become the first Afghan American to serve in the US Congress.

Wahab, a member of the California State Senate, defeated fellow Democrat Melissa Hernandez, president of the Bay Area Rapid Transit Board, to win the seat previously held by former Representative Eric Swalwell. Wahab will serve the remainder of Swalwell’s term, which ends in January.

Wahab secured about 53% of the vote, compared with roughly 47% for Hernandez, with about 95% of ballots counted. The two Democrats will face each other again in November, when voters will decide who serves the district for a full two-year term beginning in 2027.

The victory makes Wahab the first Afghan American elected to Congress. She had previously made history as the first Afghan American and Muslim woman elected to the California State Senate in 2022.

The special election was held after Swalwell resigned from Congress in April while facing allegations of sexual assault and harassment, which he has denied. The district, California’s 14th Congressional District, is located in the East Bay area near San Francisco and remains strongly Democratic.

The race drew significant outside spending, with groups linked to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) spending millions of dollars to support Hernandez and oppose Wahab. The spending reflected broader tensions within the Democratic Party over US policy toward Israel and the war in Gaza.

Wahab has positioned herself as a progressive Democrat focused on housing affordability, economic inequality and access to public services. She also authored a 2023 bill that sought to make California the first US state to explicitly ban caste discrimination. Governor Gavin Newsom vetoed the legislation, arguing that existing civil rights laws already prohibited discrimination based on ancestry.

Wahab’s victory also marks a significant milestone for the Afghan American community in the United States. She first entered public office after winning a seat on the Hayward City Council in 2018, before being elected to the California Senate four years later.