State Sen. Aisha Wahab, D-Hayward, was narrowly leading in the early results released from Tuesday’s special election to fill the rest of the congressional term in the East Bay seat formerly represented by Eric Swalwell.
Wahab had 32,149 votes, or 51.35%, compared with 30,457 votes, or 48.65%, for Melissa Hernandez, a BART board director and former Dublin mayor, according to the unofficial results released Tuesday night from the initial vote-by-mail ballots counted by the Alameda County Registrar of Voters.
The two were in a runoff to fill the rest of Swalwell’s term, which ends in January, for California’s 14th Congressional District after neither garnered a majority in a June 16 special election, when Wahab received 43% of the vote and Hernandez received 17%.
Swalwell resigned from his congressional seat in April amid accusations of sexual assault. He has denied all allegations against him.
The county Registrar of Voters said more election results will be released Friday, then again Aug. 26 and Aug. 28.
Along with Tuesday’s election to decide who fills the seat for the final months of Swalwell’s term, Wahab and Hernandez finished as the top two candidates in the June 2 primary and will face off again in November in a separate runoff for the next two-year congressional term representing District 14, which includes Hayward, Pleasanton, Livermore, Union City, Castro Valley and parts of Dublin and Fremont.
