Anti-Israel Dem leads AIPAC endorsee by 1,350 votes in California special runoff to finish Swalwell term

With about 62% of votes counted in the special runoff election to complete the term of former congressman Eric Swalwell, Aisha Wahab, an anti-Israel state senator, led Melissa Hernandez by about 1,350 votes.

Wahab, who has accused Israel of “genocide,” had 33,399 votes (51%) to 32,043 (49%) for Hernandez, a former mayor of Dublin, Calif., whom AIPAC has supported.

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The Democrats are vying to round out the congressional term, which is in its final months. The election in November will determine who will serve a full term in California’s 14th Congressional District, in the East San Francisco Bay Area.

United Democracy Project, a super PAC aligned with AIPAC, and Bold America, which it has backed, have spent more than $4.4 million supporting Hernandez and opposing Wahab, per Federal Election Commission data.

Candidates were asked in an April candidate forum to respond, “yes” or “no,” whether “what is happening to the Palestinian people is a genocide.”

Hernandez said that after Oct. 7, “Israel had the right to defend itself” and secure the release of the hostages but that “the destruction in Gaza has gone too far.”

Wahab’s campaign website states that Hernandez has “denied the genocide in Gaza” and that she “is relying on misleading attacks and AIPAC-linked dark-money PACs to tear Aisha Wahab down.”

Hernandez’s campaign website doesn’t mention Israel or any support from Jewish or pro-Israel groups.

According to the Alameda County Registrar of Voters, the next updates to the vote count will occur on Friday, followed by Aug. 26 and Aug. 28.

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