America Elects Aisha Wahab as First Afghan American in Congress
Muslim California senator defeats AIPAC-backed Melissa Hernandez in special House election
By Abdullahi Yusuf
Aisha Wahab has made history in California, becoming the first Afghan American elected to the United States Congress after defeating fellow Democrat Melissa Hernandez in a special runoff for the state’s 14th Congressional District.
Wahab, a California state senator, secured 53.1 per cent of the vote against Hernandez’s 46.9 per cent after a closely watched contest that drew millions of dollars in outside spending. The Associated Press called the race for Wahab on Thursday.
Her victory means Wahab will complete the remaining months of former Congressman Eric Swalwell’s term after he resigned from the House earlier this year. She and Hernandez will, however, face each other again in November in the election for a full two-year congressional term.
For Wahab, the result extends a political journey that has already produced a series of firsts.
She became the first Afghan American woman elected to public office in the United States when she won a seat on the Hayward City Council in 2018. Four years later, she became the first Muslim and Afghan American elected to the California State Senate.
Now she is taking that history to Washington as the first Afghan American to serve in Congress.
Wahab entered the runoff with a substantial advantage from earlier contests, but the final race became considerably tighter after outside groups poured millions of dollars into the campaign.
Hernandez, a fellow Democrat and former mayor of Dublin, received significant backing from groups linked to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC. Reuters reported that the United Democracy Project, a pro-Israel super PAC, spent nearly $2.5 million supporting Hernandez. Other reporting put the combined spending by AIPAC-linked groups against Wahab at about $4.4 million.
The spending transformed what had initially appeared to be a comfortable contest into a closely fought runoff.
The result gave Wahab the congressional seat, despite the surge of outside spending behind her opponent.
Her campaign had been built around issues including healthcare and childcare affordability, corporate price-gouging and the protection of social safety-net programmes. She has also taken progressive positions on Israel and Palestine, including saying in an April debate that she considered Israel’s actions in Gaza to constitute genocide.
Wahab’s political rise is closely tied to the experience of her family.
Born in Queens, New York, to Afghan refugees who fled the Soviet-Afghan war, she was raised in Fremont, California. Her father was later murdered and her mother died when she was young, after which Wahab spent part of her childhood in foster care.
Those experiences have shaped much of the political identity she has developed in California, particularly around inequality, housing and communities that she says are often overlooked.
Her experience in local government eventually led to her election to the California State Senate, where she continued to focus on issues including housing, inequality and the needs of underserved communities.
Her latest victory now takes that political experience to the federal level.
Wahab is not yet guaranteed a full congressional term.
Her special-election victory allows her to serve the remainder of Swalwell’s current term, but the November election will determine who represents the district for the next full term.
Hernandez will again be her opponent.
The November contest will also take place under a newly redrawn congressional map. Hernandez has pointed to the addition of about 26,000 voters from Dublin, where she previously served as mayor, as a potential advantage in the rematch.
Wahab has won the seat. In November, she will have to defend it.
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