Aisha Wahab makes history as the first Afghan American elected to Congress

Aisha Wahab has won the special election for the U.S. House seat formerly held by Rep. Eric Swalwell, Decision Desk HQ projects, making her the first person of Afghan descent to be elected to Congress.

Swalwell resigned in April amid accusations of sexual misconduct.

Wahab, a Democrat, was the first Muslim and first Afghan American to be elected to the California state Senate. She finished more than 25 points ahead of Melissa Hernandez in the nonpartisan primary in June but faced millions in outside funding opposing her candidacy before besting Hernandez in Tuesday’s election. 

Hernandez and Wahab will also be on the ballot for a full term in November. 

Hernandez is an elected representative on the Bay Area Rapid Transit Board of Directors and previously served as the first Latina mayor of Dublin, a suburb in the Bay Area. She was endorsed by local community groups and elected officials, as well as centrist Democrat groups.

Hernandez and Wahab will also be on the ballot for a full term in November. 

Swalwell’s departure opened up a prime opportunity to expand women’s representation in Congress. Incumbents are reelected at high rates, said Meredith Conroy, professor of political science at California State University, San Bernardino, so “removing the incumbency barrier removes one of the biggest structural obstacles women candidates face.”

Super PACs, groups that can spend an unlimited amount of money to support or oppose candidates, spent at least $5 million in recent weeks against Wahab, according to Politico. The money was a mix of support for her opponent and attacks on Wahab. 

Much of it traced back to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, known as AIPAC, which Politico found spent at least $3 million to boost Hernandez’s campaign. 

Hernandez focused her campaign on affordability, frequently citing her identities as a mother and Latina daughter of migrant farmers. She made public safety a core message, touting multiple police and firefighter endorsements. She also campaigned on more affordable housing, which she says she expanded while the mayor of Dublin, a city in Alameda County.

Wahab is part of a wave of progressive candidates on the ballot for seats in Congress this year. Her platform closely aligns with others, like Abdul El-Sayed, who won the Democratic nomination for the Michigan Senate race, and Claire Valdez, who won the Democratic primary for a House seat in New York. In the week before the special election, Wahab appeared on leftist influencer Hasan Piker’s Twitch stream to make the case for her election. 

Piker asked her a rapid-fire list of questions that make up the new litmus test for progressive Democrats. Wahab said the right things for his audience, indicating support for Medicare for All, raising taxes on billionaires, instituting a data center moratorium, codifying abortion and abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement. 

Wahab also said she agreed with ending all U.S. aid to Israel, though she articulated a difference between humanitarian aid and weapons funding, and expressed her support for a free Palestine. 

During a debate before the primary, Wahab said that what was happening in Palestine was a genocide.

Hernandez, on the other hand, was the only candidate to give more than a one-word response. 

“As a democracy Israel had the right to defend itself and after the terrorist attacks in October a few years ago and the right to secure the release of hostages,” she said. “But, however, the destruction into Gaza has gone too far and the people are paying the costs and so are the civilians.”

Beyond these brief comments, foreign policy didn’t play much into either candidate’s campaign. Wahab told Piker she would support a bill blocking defense support to Israel. That’s still a minority opinion among Democrats, but it has been gaining traction. 

Compared with Sayed, who faced down over $30 million in AIPAC-related spending against him according to Al Jazeera, Wahab has been a much less vocal critic of Israel. In 2025, with the input of the bipartisan California Legislative Jewish Caucus, Wahab co-authored a state Senate resolution calling for an end to the “humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza” and for the release of Israeli hostages kidnapped by Hamas on October 7, 2023. 

The ads bought by the AIPAC super PAC United Democracy Project mostly opposed Wahab but were not about Israel or Gaza, instead attacking her public safety voting record while serving on the state Senate.  

Last week, Wahab held a news conference announcing her intent to file a complaint with the Federal Elections Commission (FEC) over what she characterized as defamatory statements on social media. She said her team has reached out to Meta and will ask the FEC to investigate whether the activity should have been disclosed, calling it “election interference.”

Wahab was also the subject of an FEC complaint by a supporter of Hernandez alleging an illegal donation of $60,000, Semafor reported. She has contested it.