The Kabul Tribune (KT) — California state Sen. Aisha Wahab has won a special election to represent California’s 14th Congressional District, becoming the first Afghan American to serve in the U.S. Congress.
Wahab, a Democrat, defeated fellow Democrat Melissa
Hernandez in Thursday’s special election to complete the term of former Rep.
Eric Swalwell. She will represent the East Bay district, which includes parts
of Alameda County, through January.
Wahab and Hernandez will face each other again in November
in a separate election for a full two-year congressional term.
The victory marks another milestone in Wahab’s political
career. She became the first Afghan American elected to public office in the
United States when she won a seat on the Hayward City Council in 2018. She was
elected to the California State Senate in 2022, becoming the first Afghan
American to serve in that chamber.
Wahab was born in New York to Afghan refugees who had fled
Afghanistan during the Soviet-Afghan war. Her father was killed when she was
young, and her mother died shortly afterward. Wahab and her sister entered
foster care before being adopted by an Afghan family in California’s Bay Area.
She was raised in Fremont and later earned a political
science degree from San Jose State University. She also earned a master’s
degree in business administration from California State University, East Bay,
and a doctorate in social work from the University of Southern California.
Before entering elected office, Wahab worked in technology,
nonprofits and community advocacy. She served on the Alameda County Human
Relations Commission and Public Health Commission and was involved with the
Afghan Coalition, which serves Afghan communities in the Bay Area.
Her family’s economic struggles also shaped her political
priorities. During the aftermath of the Great Recession, her family lost its
business and home, and Wahab lost her job. The family eventually moved to
Hayward, where she became increasingly involved in housing and community
issues.
As a state senator, Wahab has made housing affordability and
economic inequality central issues. She also authored legislation in 2023 that
sought to prohibit caste discrimination in California. The measure passed the
Legislature but was vetoed by Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, who said existing
civil rights protections already prohibited such discrimination.
The congressional campaign attracted significant outside
spending and exposed divisions within the Democratic Party. Groups affiliated
with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee spent millions supporting
Hernandez and opposing Wahab.
Foreign policy was not the central issue of the race, but
Wahab’s views on Israel and the war in Gaza drew attention. At an April
candidate forum, she said she considered the treatment of Palestinians in Gaza
to be genocide. Hernandez, a moderate Democrat, said Israel had a right to
defend itself after the Oct. 7, 2023, attack by Hamas but that the destruction
in Gaza had gone too far.
Wahab said her victory demonstrated that her campaign could
not be bought and framed her path from foster care to Congress as an example of
the American dream.
“I will fight for this district that raised me,” Wahab said
in a statement.
For the Afghan American community, her election represents a
historic breakthrough. Wahab is now the first person of Afghan descent to serve
in Congress, adding another chapter to a political career built around a series
of firsts.
Her initial tenure in Congress will be brief. She will serve
the remainder of Swalwell’s term through January, while voters in November will
decide whether she or Hernandez serves the district for the following two-year
term.
