California lawmaker Aisha Wahab has secured victory in a special election to serve the rest of former Representative Eric Swalwell's House term, which ends in January.
Swalwell, a Democrat who was running for California governor, ended his campaign and resigned from Congress in April after he was accused of sexual assault and harassment.
He has denied the allegations.
Wahab defeated Bay Area Rapid Transit Director Melissa Hernandez in the special election in the state's 14th Congressional District, which covers parts of Alameda County on the eastern side of the San Francisco Bay.
Super PACs aligned with the pro-Israel lobbying group, American Israel Public Affairs Committee or AIPAC, poured millions of dollars into advertisements and social media campaigns attacking Wahab and bolstering her opponent.
Wahab has called for cutting US military aid to Israel, which she says has carried out genocide in Gaza. Hernandez says that Israel has a right to defend itself.
Wahab has championed housing affordability and access.
She also wrote a bill in 2023 to ban caste-based discrimination, which garnered national attention. Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom vetoed it, saying such discrimination is already outlawed by civil rights protections.
Wahab became the first Afghan American elected to public office in the US when she won a Hayward City Council seat in 2018. She will be the first Afghan American to serve in Congress.
She and Hernandez will face off again in a separate November election determining who will serve the next full two-year term.
