Polls Close Tuesday Night in Special Election for Swalwell’s Former Seat

Gov. Gavin Newsom called the special election after Swalwell resigned from Congress after multiple women leveled sexual assault and misconduct allegations against him.

The unexpected race has thrown an extra wrinkle into an already hotly contested congressional election.

Swalwell had previously declared he would not seek reelection to Congress so he could run for governor, which prompted nine candidates to run for the seat in the standard June 2 primary.

In that race, state Sen. Aisha Wahab was the frontrunner, earning more than 38% of the votes counted thus far, which is more than double the second-place finisher, former Dublin Mayor Melissa Hernandez, who holds a little more than 17% of the vote.

Wahab and Hernandez will face off in the November general election to determine who wins the seat for the next four-year term.

The special primary and general election process will determine who will hold the seat for the remainder of Swalwell’s term, which ends in January. Democrats are hoping to fill the seat quickly, as Republicans control the House of Representatives by just a handful of votes.

Also on the ballot with Wahab and Hernandez are four other Democrats: Rakhi Israni Singh, an educator; Alisha Cordes, a business administrator; administrative law judge Sheriene Ridenour; and businessman Jot Thiara.

Four Republicans are running in the race: Wendy Huang, a real estate investor; florist Dena Maldonado; Tom Wong, a businessman; and Jack Wu, an educator. Victor Zevallos, a financial business strategist, is running as an independent.

The seat represents about 740,000 people across Castro Valley, Hayward, Livermore, Pleasanton and Union City, and parts of Dublin, Fremont and San Leandro.

About 429,000 registered voters live in the district, with about half of them registered Democrats. Nearly 18% are Republicans, and about 26% do not have a party preference.

Polls are open until 8 p.m. Tuesday, as in a standard election, though early voting has been available since ballots were mailed to voters in mid-May.