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 33,399 votes, or 51%, compared to 32,043 and 49% for Melissa Hernandez, a BART board director and former Dublin mayor, according to the unofficial results released 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 that ends in January for California’s 14th Congressional District after neither garnered a majority in a June 16 special election where Wahab received 43% of the vote and Hernandez 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 results from the election will be released on 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 congressional two-year term to represent District 14, which includes the cities of Hayward, Pleasanton, Livermore, Union City, Castro Valley, and parts of Dublin and Fremont.