Voters to decide who will fill Swalwell's seat in Congress

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(The Center Square) – Voters in California’s 14th Congressional District will head to the ballot box Tuesday to choose the successor to former U.S. Rep. Eric Swalwell.

Swalwell, D-San Francisco Bay Area, resigned in April from Congress amid sexual misconduct allegations. He also quit the gubernatorial race. 

The two candidates on the ballot Tuesday are both Democrats: state Sen. Aisha Wahab of Hayward and former Dublin Mayor Melissa Hernandez, who sits today on the Bay Area Rapid Transit board. 

Wahab and Hernandez squared off in two June primaries, but neither of them received more than 50% of the vote. That made Tuesday's special election necessary.

The winner of Tuesday’s election will serve during the rest of Swalwell's term, which ends Jan. 3. The entire district is in Alameda County in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Regardless of the outcome Tuesday, Wahab and Hernandez will square off again in the Nov. 3 general election to determine who will serve during the term starting Jan. 3.

Neither Wahab nor Hernandez responded to The Center Square’s requests for comment.

Affordability has been mentioned as a top issue for voters in the 14th Congressional District, and on her website, Wahab promises to advocate for affordable housing, expand homeownership opportunities and improve overall living conditions in the Bay Area.

“The status quo is afraid because I work for you – not billion dollar corporations,” said Wahab on her website.

Hernandez also claims to have an eye on what concerns Bay Area residents. The candidate's campaign promises include “lowering costs, building housing people can afford, and protecting access to healthcare.”

Meanwhile, the race has seen its share of mudslinging. On Aug. 12, the Hernandez campaign published a press release about a Federal Election Commission complaint accusing Wahab of “laundering corporate money into their campaign for Congress.” An Aug. 7 press release from Hernandez involved Latino leaders condemning “Aisha Wahab’s father’s racist rant calling for Melissa Hernandez to be deported.”

The Wahab campaign has responded to what it calls “political attacks” by saying on its website that Hernandez lost two primary elections by more than 20 percentage points. 

That's confirmed by results from the California Secretary of State's Office, which reported Wahab led the nine-candidate race during the regular June 2 primary with 59,238 votes or 38.3% of the vote. Hernandez placed second with 26,579 votes or 17.2%.

Wahab and Hernandez squared off again during the special June 16 primary. Wahab won 52,961 votes or 42.8% of the vote, the Secretary of State's Office said. Hernandez won 20,731 votes or 16.8% of the vote. 

“Instead of running on a record of results, she is relying on misleading attacks to tear Aisha Wahab down,” said the Wahab campaign in a section of its website called The Truth Behind The Attack Ads.