Aisha Wahab (born January 11, 1987) is an American politician who has served since 2026 as the U.S. representative from California's 14th congressional district. A member of the Democratic Party, Wahab served from 2022 to 2026 as a member of the California State Senate from the 10th district and from 2018 to 2022 on the Hayward City Council. She is among the first Afghan Americans elected to public office in the United States, the first Muslim and Afghan American elected to the California State Senate, and the first Afghan American elected to Congress.
Born to Afghan refugees in New York City, Wahab was raised in Fremont, California, and has a doctorate in social work from the University of Southern California. She worked in nonprofit organizations and consulting before entering politics. Upon being elected to the Hayward City Council in 2018, she became one of the first Afghan Americans elected to public office in the United States, the other being Safiya Wazir. She was elected to the California State Senate in 2022.
In 2025, Wahab was appointed Senate assistant majority leader. She announced her candidacy for Congress in California's 14th congressional district in 2026. Wahab also ran in a special election from the same district to complete the term of Eric Swalwell, who resigned in April after facing allegations of sexual misconduct. No candidate won a majority in the first round, and Wahab defeated Democrat Melissa Hernandez in the runoff on August 18. Wahab and Hernandez will face off again in the general election for a full two-year term.
Wahab was sworn in as a member of the 119th Congress on September 2, 2026. She is the first Afghan American to serve in Congress.
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Early life and education
Wahab was born in Queens, New York City, to a family from Afghanistan that came to the United States in the 1980s as refugees fleeing the Soviet–Afghan War. Soon after her birth, her father was murdered, and his murder was never solved. Her mother died shortly thereafter, leaving Wahab and her sister in foster care. The sisters were then adopted by a Fremont, California couple sharing the same ethnic background as their biological parents.
Wahab graduated from John F. Kennedy High School and Ohlone College, both in Fremont, before earning a Bachelor of Arts in political science from San Jose State University in 2010. During and after college, she was an account manager and business development director for various startup companies in the San Francisco Bay Area. In 2011, the economic impacts of the Great Recession caused Wahab to lose her job and her parents to lose their business. When Wahab's parents' home was foreclosed on, the family was priced out of Fremont and moved to Hayward, California, where they became renters.
Wahab earned a Master of Business Administration from California State University, East Bay, in 2013. She was involved in student government during graduate school and became an IT consultant after graduation.
In 2024, Wahab completed a doctorate in social work at the USC Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work.
Early political career
Hayward City Council
Wahab ran for Hayward City Council in 2018. She was the top vote-getter in a field of seven candidates vying for an at-large city council seat, beating two incumbents. Along with New Hampshire state representative Safiya Wazir, Wahab was the first Afghan American elected to public office in the United States.
In 2019, California state assemblymember Bill Quirk recognized Wahab as Woman of the Year from Assembly District 20.
Wahab served on the Hayward City Council from 2018 to 2022. She did not run for reelection in 2022, instead successfully running for California State Senate.
2020 congressional campaign
After incumbent U.S. representative Eric Swalwell announced he would run in the 2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries, Wahab announced she would run to replace him in California's 15th congressional district. Her support for progressive policies such as Medicare for All and identity as a millennial women of color led to comparisons to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Swalwell then ended his presidential campaign and ran for reelection to Congress, leading Wahab to suspend her campaign three weeks later.
California State Senate
2022 election
Wahab announced she would run for the California State Senate in the 10th district, which spans from Hayward to Sunnyvale. Incumbent state senator Bob Wieckowski was term-limited and endorsed Wahab to succeed him. During the campaign, she said she would focus on California's housing crisis and stagnating wages. California state assemblymember Alex Lee, whose district overlaps with Wahab's, and former Federal Election Commission chair Ann Ravel backed her campaign. She advanced to the top-two primary on June 7 and won the general election on November 8, defeating Fremont mayor Lily Mei, a moderate Democrat, in the general election. Her victory made Wahab the first Muslim and Afghan American elected to the California State Senate.
Tenure
Wahab was sworn in as a state senator on December 5, 2022. While in office, Wahab maintained a broad legislative portfolio spanning housing, public safety, health and human services, infrastructure, workforce development, and labor protections. During the 2023–2025 legislative sessions, she authored, principal-coauthored, or coauthored legislation across these policy areas, with dozens of measures enacted into law and others advancing through committee and appropriations processes.
Her housing-related state legislative work includes more than 20 bills addressing tenant protections, rental practices, and housing affordability, alongside committee-level leadership on broader housing policy and infrastructure considerations. She also authored and supported numerous measures focused on foster youth, post-adoption protections, and service delivery standards.
Wahab's health-related legislation included measures expanding access to essential services and addressing equity in public health settings, while her public safety work has addressed firearm safety, traffic enforcement practices, and criminal justice procedures. Additional legislative activity has focused on workforce development, economic security, infrastructure planning, and labor and workplace protections.
Enacted legislation authored by Wahab includes measures addressing tenant security deposits, menstrual equity in schools and public facilities, expanded educational support for foster and homeless youth, post-adoption contact protections, and reforms affecting criminal records and survivor access to justice.
Wahab resigned from the State Senate at the end of the 2026 legislative session to take office in the U.S. House of Representatives.
In 2023, Wahab authored SB 466, a bill to modify the Costa–Hawkins Rental Housing Act and allow cities to expand rent control. The bill failed to advance. In 2025, she introduced SB 436, which would bar landlords from evicting a tenant for failure to pay rent if the tenant pays back the rent. Wahab has said that parking mandates are necessary for new housing, and has often criticized efforts in California to exempt new housing projects from them.
U.S. House of Representatives
Elections
On January 24, 2026, Wahab announced that she would run in the 2026 U.S. House of Representatives election in California's 14th congressional district after the incumbent, Eric Swalwell, announced his candidacy for governor of California in the 2026 election. Swalwell later suspended his campaign, and on April 14 resigned from Congress due to allegations of sexual misconduct, leading Newsom to call a special election. State party leaders attempted to nominate former state senator Bob Wieckowski to serve in a "caretaker" role, avoiding the possibility of a runoff and thus a prolonging of the vacancy in Swalwell's former district. Wiecowski said he would run only if endorsed by all major contenders. Wahab did not endorse him, instead declaring her candidacy in the special election.
In the June 2 primary election for the next term, Wahab led a field of nine candidates with 38.3% of the vote. She received support from the California Democratic Party, the Congressional Progressive Caucus, and the state chapter of the Service Employees International Union. She advanced to the general election against fellow Democrat Melissa Hernandez, the former mayor of Dublin, who finished with 17.2% of the vote ahead of Republican candidate Wendy Huang. In the first round of the special election on June 16, Wahab again led with 42.8% of the vote. Failing to receive a majority, she advanced to the August 18 runoff against Hernandez.
Wahab was seen as the favorite in the runoff. Hernandez received substantial support from the pro-Israel lobby in the closing days of the race, including $5 million in funding from two super PACs affiliated with AIPAC. This made the runoff closer than originally anticipated, with no winner declared until August 20, when Wahab was declared the winner, with 53.1% of the vote. She is set to face Hernandez again in November.
Tenure
Wahab took office during the 119th Congress on September 2, 2026. She is the first Afghan American member of the United States Congress.