Democratic state Sen. Aisha Wahab will win the special election runoff to finish former Rep. Eric Swalwell’s term in California’s 14th District, CNN’s Decision Desk projects.
In recent weeks, the Bay Area race to replace the former congressman, who resigned amid sexual assault allegations, became another test of Democratic divides over Israel. Super PACs aligned with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee poured millions of dollars into ads attacking the progressive and bolstering her opponent, Democrat Melissa Hernandez, who is president of the Bay Area Rapid Transit Board.
“I’m very proud of this district for not listening to the hate-mongering and really knowing and believing the work that I’ve done,” Wahab told KQED on Tuesday night, after the first votes reported showed her with a slim lead.
Neither candidate focused on Israel in their campaign, but Wahab has called for cutting US military aid to the country and, when asked in a candidate forum, said she believes the war in Gaza constitutes a genocide. Asked the same question during the forum, Hernandez said Israel has a right to defend itself while adding that the “destruction in Gaza has gone too far.”
But ahead of Tuesday’s runoff, AIPAC’s super PAC arm, United Democracy Project, injected nearly $2 million in advertising attacking Wahab and supporting Hernandez into the race, according to AdImpact data, with another $1.9 million coming from BOLD America, a group that also receives funding from AIPAC.
