There is a special election taking place tomorrow (Tuesday, August 18, 2026) in California’s 14th Congressional District to fill the seat left vacant by Eric Swalwell’s resignation earlier this year. Melissa Hernandez, currently the BART Board of Directors President after a stint as mayor of Dublin, California, is facing off against Aisha Wahab, who currently serves as Assistant Majority Leader in the California State Senate.
Each candidate has their own hardscrabble tale to tell. Hernandez is the daughter of migrant farm workers and a single mom who has at least some real-world business experience to go along with her political career. Wahab was born in New York City. Orphaned at an early age, she was adopted by a couple in Fremont, California. She also lists business experience on her resume before entering city-level politics in 2018. Wahab states on her campaign website that she is the first Afghan American woman elected to public office.
Ideologically, based on the platforms spelled out on their respective campaign websites, the differences between Hernandez and Wahab are not significant. Hernandez has pledged to “drive down the costs of housing, healthcare, and childcare, protect Social Security and Medicare from cuts, and prioritize growing small businesses to strengthen our local economy” without specifying how this is to be accomplished. She is no fan of ICE; however, Hernandez “supports smart border security and regional cooperation to address the root causes driving migration, not political stunts that put families in danger.”
Wahab’s stances mirror Hernandez’s, although it is worth noting that Wahab has nothing to say on her campaign site regarding immigration, legal or otherwise. Wahab is more stridently anti-war:
We must end open-ended deployments, stop unauthorized air campaigns, and return service members from conflicts that lack clear goals or a responsible conclusion. The best way to honor our troops is not to send them into wars that political leaders cannot explain and refuse to end.
America is strongest when our word carries weight, our alliances are trusted, and our military is used only as a true last resort. A responsible foreign policy can protect our country, reunite military families, rebuild relationships abroad, and prevent another generation from inheriting wars that should have ended long ago.
So… more Trump than Obama?
Given the slim nature of the political division between Hernandez and Wahab, it is unsurprising that the campaign has run more in attack mode than on policy differences. Hernandez is receiving much of her campaign financing from sources outside the district, including establishment Democrats going against their own party’s endorsement of Wahab, along with millions from the United Democracy Project, described as a “nonpartisan super PAC affiliated with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC)." The PAC has sent out multiple anti-Wahab mailers, accusing her of softening anti-child sexual exploitation laws.
A curiosity about this election is that the same two candidates will face off in November 2026 to serve a full term in Congress. Therefore, it is entirely possible for whoever wins tomorrow to lose as the incumbent in three months.
It is not difficult to envision Wahab, should she win, to swiftly align herself with the Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez effort to be progressive in nature but moderate in tone as part of an effort to broaden her national appeal before 2028. Certainly her minority status would be a feather in the Democrat cap. Wahab easily outpaced Hernandez in the two previous 2026 primary elections, one for the November ballot and one to fill the remainder of Swalwell’s term. Should she do so again in the two upcoming elections, she could well join Ocasio-Cortez in the category of politicians not to ignore.
Editor's Note: The Democrat Party has never been less popular as voters reject its globalist agenda.
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