{"id":2318,"date":"2026-06-17T12:08:04","date_gmt":"2026-06-17T12:08:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=2318"},"modified":"2026-06-17T12:08:04","modified_gmt":"2026-06-17T12:08:04","slug":"wahab-appears-ahead-in-special-election-to-replace-swalwell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=2318","title":{"rendered":"Wahab appears ahead in special election to replace Swalwell"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Voters for the second time in two weeks cast ballots Tuesday to replace former Rep. Eric Swalwell, this time in a special primary election to fill the remainder of this year\u2019s term. Early returns Tuesday night showed State Sen. Aisha Wahab leading with 42.49% of the vote.<\/p>\n

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Eleven candidates appeared on the ballot for Congressional District 14, including several candidates who previously ran in the June 2 primary election for the new term. The district covers parts of the East Bay and Tri-Valley, including cities such as Fremont, Hayward, Dublin, and Livermore. Repeat candidates running in both primaries included Democrats Wahab and BART Board President Melissa Hernandez. Returns Tuesday night showed Hernandez with 16.71% of the vote.<\/p>\n

Swalwell abandoned his seat earlier this year after resigning and dropping his gubernatorial campaign over sexual misconduct allegations made against him by multiple women.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just very thankful to the voters. I know that two elections in two weeks is a lot of mail, a barrage of a lot of literature and it\u2019s a little bit of a hassle to fill out two ballots,\u201d Wahab told this news organization after seeing initial results Tuesday night. \u201cIt\u2019s very, very clear that our message resonates with people. Millions of dollars coming outside of the district has not been able to change that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hernandez told this news organization Tuesday night that she is confident that initial results will keep her in the top two spots and send her to both of the following general elections.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis has been a grassroots campaign, and it\u2019s fueled by volunteers working side by side with my campaign and my team. At the end of the day, we\u2019ve worked really hard,\u201d Hernandez said. \u201cWe\u2019re fighting the good fight.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the Castro Valley Library on Tuesday afternoon, Hayward resident Rana Othman told this news organization that she voted for Wahab in both primaries.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s the only person that\u2019s spoken about Palestine and that was my criteria,\u201d Othman said. Other candidates, Othman said, were not as outwardly against Israel\u2019s war with Hamas. She called the war a genocide of Palestinian people, and said Wahab would fight to cut off taxpayer funding to Israel.<\/p>\n

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\u201cRegardless of how anyone feels about Israel, we would want our tax dollars to benefit us here,\u201d Othman said. \u201cIt\u2019s nice to see someone standing up for her principles and not backing down.\u201d<\/p>\n

Of the more than 430,000 registered voters in the special election, Alameda County Registrar Cynthia Cornejo said her office received more than 109,000 mail-in ballots by Monday evening.<\/p>\n

Dublin resident Ken Yee, 56, voted for Hernandez at the Dublin Civic Center Tuesday afternoon.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe knows the issues, especially for Dublin,\u201d Yee told this news organization. \u201cI really don\u2019t know that much about the other candidates. I\u2019m just going by what I know.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Yee has lived in Dublin for nine years, which included during Hernandez\u2019s tenure as the city\u2019s mayor. He said he voted for Hernandez because he liked her as mayor, and said she would understand the Tri-Valley\u2019s issues better than her competitors.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe biggest thing for me was keeping it local, especially to Dublin and the Tri-Valley,\u201d Yee said.<\/p>\n

He called Swalwell\u2019s abrupt fallout from public office unfortunate for the district\u2019s residents.<\/p>\n

\u201cHopefully we get better people with better integrity in there,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Other repeat candidates appearing on the special election ballot include Democrat Rakhi Israni, a first-time political candidate who loaned her campaign over $1 million of her own money; and Republicans Wendy Huang and Dena Maldonado.<\/p>\n

Returns Tuesday night showed Israni with 13.2% of the vote, compared to Huang\u2019s 9.19% and Maldonado\u2019s 8.73%.<\/p>\n

Dublin resident and Republican voter Russell Taylor told this news organization Tuesday at the Dublin Civic Center that Huang was his choice for both primaries.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt looked like she would be best to support our area,\u201d Taylor said. \u201cShe\u2019s for limited government, which is better than more government.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other candidates campaigned against the Trump administration and for more progressive policies, such as universal healthcare \u2014 policies which he opposes, Taylor said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis isn\u2019t an election about President Trump, this is an election for the House of Representatives,\u201d Taylor said. \u201cThey made the election about something that isn\u2019t on the ballot.\u201d<\/p>\n

Danny Magalhaes, a 65-year-old Dublin voter, again cast his ballot for Wahab on Tuesday at the civic center. He also voted for Wahab in the June 2 primary. Having worked for several years in a management position at the city of Hayward, Magalhaes said he\u2019d personally worked with Wahab in the past during her time on Hayward City Council. As a labor-aligned voter, Magalhaes said it was his personal experience with Wahab earned his vote.<\/p>\n

\u201cI like how she looks after people,\u201d Magalhaes said. \u201cI agree with her on a lot of her platform.\u201d<\/p>\n

Latest returns from the June 2 primary showed Wahab with more than 38% of the vote, likely sending her to the November general election against Hernandez, who had received about 17% of the vote. If results from Tuesday night hold, Wahab and Hernandez could face off in both the Aug. 18 special general election and the Nov. 3 general election.<\/p>\n

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Early returns showed Wahab ahead of Hernandez after polls closed Tuesday night<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2317,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2318","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nWahab appears ahead in special election to replace Swalwell - Next City Digest<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=2318\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Wahab appears ahead in special election to replace Swalwell - Next City Digest\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Early returns showed Wahab ahead of Hernandez after polls closed Tuesday night\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=2318\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Next City Digest\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-06-17T12:08:04+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextcitydigest.com\\\/?p=2318#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextcitydigest.com\\\/?p=2318\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextcitydigest.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/13065d40d633843429ac57d4e5c06f9b\"},\"headline\":\"Wahab appears ahead in special election to replace Swalwell\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-06-17T12:08:04+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextcitydigest.com\\\/?p=2318\"},\"wordCount\":923,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextcitydigest.com\\\/?p=2318#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextcitydigest.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/5bc7de252abab183596db8f625128e33.webp\",\"articleSection\":[\"News\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/nextcitydigest.com\\\/?p=2318#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextcitydigest.com\\\/?p=2318\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextcitydigest.com\\\/?p=2318\",\"name\":\"Wahab appears ahead in special election to replace Swalwell - 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