{"id":709912,"date":"2026-06-17T18:07:25","date_gmt":"2026-06-17T18:07:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/709912\/"},"modified":"2026-06-17T18:07:25","modified_gmt":"2026-06-17T18:07:25","slug":"voters-replace-disgraced-eric-swalwell-with-democrat-aisha-wahab","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/709912\/","title":{"rendered":"Voters replace disgraced Eric Swalwell with Democrat Aisha Wahab"},"content":{"rendered":"

Voters in Alameda County were back at the polls Tuesday \u2014 just two weeks after the primary election \u2014 to decide who will replace disgraced ex-congressman Eric Swalwell, whose career imploded after disturbing allegations of rape and sexual assault<\/a> derailed his candidacy for California governor.<\/p>\n

Despite months of controversy surrounding the Democrat, voters in deep-blue East Bay aren\u2019t breaking their habit. <\/p>\n

With 80% of ballots counted as of 8:32 p.m., Democrat Aisha Wahab led the field with 42.6% of the vote, short of the 50% needed to avoid a runoff under California\u2019s top-two system.<\/p>\n

State Sen. Aisha Wahab, a Democratic candidate for Congress in California\u2019s 14th district. AP Photo\/Annie Barker<\/p>\n

Trailing the frontrunner, Melissa Hernandez held second place with 16.8% of the vote (17,619 votes), followed by Rakhi Israni Singh in third at 13.3% (13,946 votes). <\/p>\n

Both are Democrats.<\/p>\n

Melissa Hernandez, a Democratic candidate for Congress in California\u2019s 14th district. AP Photo\/Annie Barker<\/p>\n

Wahab is considered a staunchly progressive, left-leaning liberal.<\/p>\n

Her voting record and platform frequently draw comparisons to left-wing liberals like Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. <\/p>\n

Some have even called Wahab the \u201cWest Coast AOC,\u201d according to the East Bay Express<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY-14). Aristide Economopoulos for the NY Post<\/p>\n

Swalwell looked poised to win the California governor\u2019s race<\/a> as recently as early April, as the thirsty cable-news combatant parlayed his frequent criticism of President Trump into a campaign platform that courted support from Hollywood A-listers<\/a> and political operatives in Gov. Gavin Newsom\u2019s orbit.<\/p>\n

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The bottom fell out on April 10 after allegations of rape, sexual assault and deviant behavior<\/a> from a series of women surfaced in reports by the San Francisco Chronicle and CNN.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Eric Swalwell\u2019s career imploded. AP<\/p>\n

Democratic leaders pressured Swalwell to bow out of the governor\u2019s race, his deep-pocketed donors distanced themselves, and prosecutors on both coasts and the Department of Justice all opened criminal probes<\/a>. Eventually the pressure swelled to a degree that staffers refused to work for Swalwell, leading him no choice but to resign from Congress<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Swalwell has denied the allegations, saying he made mistakes outside of his marriage, but the damage was irreparable.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s now facing an investigation by the state\u2019s Fair Political Practices Commission<\/a>, with investigators targeting the more than $300,000 he has spent on Sara Azari, an anti-MeToo celebrity lawyer who\u2019s defending him against the rape and sexual assault allegations<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Voters in Alameda County were back at the polls Tuesday \u2014 just two weeks after the primary election…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":709913,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,3805,2356,1340,112898,24800,3,7234,111,18181,2818,21,19,22,20,25,194,24],"class_list":["post-709912","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-bay-area","tag-california","tag-congress","tag-eric-swalwell","tag-governor","tag-news","tag-northern-california","tag-politics","tag-rape","tag-sexual-assault","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-us-news","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/709912","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=709912"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/709912\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/709913"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=709912"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=709912"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=709912"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}