Congressman Eric Swalwell announces resignation from Congress
Congressman Eric Swalwell has resigned from Congress after being accused by four women of sexual misconduct and facing possible expulsion.
Democrat Aisha Wahab has entered the special election for California’s 14th Congressional District to fill the vacancy left by former Rep. Eric Swalwell, who resigned earlier this year, according to multiple reports.
According to the California Secretary of State’s Office, early voting results show Wahab, the California state senator from District 10, received 45,380 votes (about 42.4%) and currently leads a field of 11 candidates. Wahab, a project of the Associated Press, NBC and the Washington Post, will advance to a runoff in August.
Bay Area High Speed Rail Board member Melissa Hernandez, a Democrat, and lawyer and business owner Rakhi Israni Singh were following Wahab as of early Wednesday morning.
According to the California Secretary of State’s Office, Mr. Hernandez received 17,848 votes, or about 16.7% of the vote, while Mr. Singh received 14,160 votes, or about 13.2% of the vote.
The top two vote-getters will advance to a special general election on August 18th.
For many Bay Area voters, this will be the second time they’ve gone to the polls to make their voices heard in support of Swalwell’s former House seat.
In the June 2 primary, voters were deciding which two candidates they wanted to see face off for the seat in the new 14th Congressional District created under Proposition 50, for a term beginning in January 2027.
A special election on June 16 will determine who will serve out the remaining six months of Swalwell’s term as regional representative.
Mr. Swalwell was serving his second term as the U.S. representative for the 14th Congressional District. He denied the allegations before resigning from parliament in April following accusations of sexual assault by several women. The controversy ended his candidacy for California governor and more than a decade of service in Congress.
Mr. Wahab (38.3%) and Mr. Hernandez (17.2%) are the top two vote-getters in the June 2nd primary, according to unofficial results from the California Secretary of State as of Tuesday, June 16th.
Nearly half of the district’s registered voters are Democrats, according to numbers reported by the California Secretary of State ahead of the June 2 primary.
USA TODAY reporter Paris Barraza contributed to this article.
Noe Padilla is a Northern California reporter for USA Today. To contact him, npadilla@usatodayco.comX Follow him at @1NoePadilla or Bluesky @noepadilla.bsky.social.. Sign up for the TODAY Californian newsletter or follow TODAY Californian on Facebook.
