FREMONT, Calif. (Diya TV) — Rep. Aisha Wahab leads Democrat Melissa Hernandez by nearly 15,900 votes in California’s 14th Congressional District, after the two candidates appeared on the ballot together four times in five months.
Alameda County’s latest unofficial count, posted early Wednesday, gave Wahab 68,612 votes, or 56.5%, and Hernandez 52,755, or 43.5%. Wahab declared victory Wednesday, but Hernandez had not conceded, citing ballots still to be counted. The county scheduled its next results update for Friday, Nov. 6.
The four contests arose from two separate elections: the regular race for a full term and a special election to fill the seat Eric Swalwell vacated when he resigned in April. In the June 2 primary for the full term, Wahab led the field with 38.3%; Hernandez placed second with 17.2%. Both advanced to the November election.
The candidates met again in the June 16 special primary. Eleven candidates competed for the vacant seat. Wahab finished first with 42.8%, and Hernandez followed with 16.8%. Neither won more than half the vote, so California advanced them to an August runoff. Wahab won that special election with 53.1% to Hernandez’s 46.9%, earning the remaining months of Swalwell’s term. House Speaker Mike Johnson swore her in on Sept. 2.
The November result will decide the full term that begins in January. Voters used the district boundaries approved through Proposition 50 for that term; the August special election filled the vacancy under the existing map.
Wahab, a former California state senator from Hayward, became the first Afghan American elected to Congress when she won the special election. Hernandez, a former Dublin mayor and BART board president, challenged her in both the special and regular races.
Hernandez raised and spent more campaign money through Oct. 14. Her campaign reported about $2.1 million raised and $2 million spent; Wahab reported about $1.2 million raised and $752,000 spent. The latest count now shows Wahab with a 13-point lead, though election officials have not certified the November result.
