District 14 congressional race: Who's running to replace Rep. Eric Swalwell?
Fremont mom leads with campaign cash in Race to fill Swalwell's Congressional seat
In the Congressional race to win the East Bays District 14 seat, voters should be watching their mailboxes for two ballots,one for the upcoming June 2 regular primary and another one for the June 16 special election. Former Congressman Eric Swalwell represented the area since 2013, but resigned abruptly after former staff made sexual assault allegations.
California's primary election will be held on June 2 – but voters in parts of Alameda County could cast their ballots as many as four times to fill the U.S. House District 14 seat filled by former Rep. Eric Swalwell, who resigned from Congress after sexual assault allegations.
District 14 voters will decide who will serve the remainder of Swalwell's term – about four months – plus the candidate will serve the next two-year congressional term.
Primary and special election
On June 2, East Bay voters will choose the top two candidates who will face off in the November election. The winner of the November general election will then serve a two-year congressional term.
On June 16, voters will then participate in a special election to decide who will serve the remainder of Swalwell's congressional term, roughly four months.
Swalwell resigned from Congress in April, after multiple sexual assault allegations tanked his political aspirations for the governorship of California.
In the regular primary, nine candidates will be on the ballot. Eleven candidates will be on the June 16 special election ballot.
The congressional District includes parts of Alameda County, including Castro Valley, Dublin, and Livermore.
Who's running for Eric Swalwell's District 14 seat?
Rakhi Israni
KTVU reported that Israni, a Fremont mother of four, is running on the Democratic Party ticket.
The educator and nonprofit attorney has amassed a campaign war chest of more than $2 million, contributing more than $1 million of her own money.
She had previously told KTVU she is running because she feels there is a need for change in Congress.
Her campaign page portrays a portrait of a working mother who is not from the political establishment. She has been an attorney in the East Bay and served as a judge Pro Tem in Santa Clara County Superior Court.
Part of her platform includes an age cap for politicians. She proposes a mandatory retirement of 75 for the president, Congress, federal judges, as well as term limits for members of Congress.
Aisha Wahab
State Senator Aisha Wahab represents California's 10th Senate District. She was elected to her position in 2022.
Wahab grew up in Fremont and served on the Hayward City Council. On her campaign website, Wahab says she has worked to cap insulin at $35 and supported CalRX $11 insulin to bring prices down.
She claims to have also secured $300 million for down-payment assistance for first-time home buyers. Wahab also considers ensuring public school students two free meals as part of her record.
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Melissa Hernandez
Hernandez is currently serving as one of BART's board of directors representing District 5, which includes Alameda and Contra Costa County. The health care services director was elected to the board in 2024.
Her current term ends in December 2028.
Prior to serving on the BART board, Hernandez was a council member for the city of Dublin for eight years in addition to being the city's mayor. The Democrat considers establishing new housing for all income levels as one of her accomplishments during her mayoral tenure.
She considers her transportation record to be one of her strong points, as she claims to have led efforts to reduce traffic congestion while improving transit throughout the Tri-Valley area.
Among her endorsements are State Treasurer Fiona Ma.
Wendy Fiona Huang
Republican Party candidate and real estate investor Wendy Fiona Huang emigrated from Taiwan 40 years ago, according to her website.
The mother and wife of two college-age sons, says she is standing up to restore "the American Dream for family, faith and freedom."
She has been vocal in her support of Proposition 36, which increased penalties for theft and drug trafficking in the state of California. As part of her platform, Huang says she is looking to protect law-abiding citizens – not criminals. She pledges to do this by holding "violent offenders accountable" and by ending policies that punish victims of crime.
She says she wants to make California livable again by lowering taxes and hidden fees.
Carin Elam
Carin Elam is a Democrat, a businesswoman and a nonprofit director, among other things. On her campaign website, she makes a point to call out the Republican-sponsored Save Act, which would require all citizens to provide proof of citizenship prior to voting.
Elam says this would disproportionately affect women and older Americans, and would amount to intentional voter suppression. She has pledged to reverse funding cuts to Medicaid and Affordable Care Act subsidies as part of her plan to make health care more affordable.
She's also called out President Trump's tariffs, calling them random and something that has led to massive uncertainty in the global economy.
She also weighs in on how to prepare for the onslaught of artificial intelligence and the importance of renewable energy. Elam is a graduate of Antioch High School.
Victor Aguilar Jr.
Aguilar is a Democrat who has served on San Leandro City Council since 2018. His term comes to an end in December.
He has a bachelor's degree in political science from Hawaii Pacific University. His city councilmember biography page says he moved to San Leandro from Los Angeles with his husband in 2011.
He was affiliated with the Alameda County Democratic Central Committee from 2021 to 2024. In addition, he has served as the board president for Lavender Seniors of the East Bay – a nonprofit that helps LGBTQ+ older adults age with pride as well as maintain a high quality of life.
Aguilar's campaign website pledges to help fund universal healthcare, streamline affordable housing, regulate AI to protect working people and to protect neighbors in the community from deportation.
Multiple candidates file to fill Swalwell's congressional seat
16 candidates have filed paperwork to fill the seat vacated by Congressman Eric Swalwell, who until recently was campaigning to be governor of California. Swalwell dropped out after multiple women accused him of sexual assault, and recent financial disclosures show Swalwell spent $40,000 in campaign funds to a defense attorney in order to fight those accusations.
Matt Ortega
Matt Ortega is a graphic designer and a businessman. According to his campaign website, he served as digital communications director for Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign. He opened his creative services firm, E23 Digital, in 2022.
He grew up in Hayward and now lives in San Leandro with his wife and two sons who are enrolled in San Lorenzo public schools.
Ortega, an avid Bay Area sports fan, organized to help keep the Oakland Athletics in Oakland.
He believes in access to abortion, statehood for Washington D.C., would like to see the abolition of ICE and is calling for a purge of the "surveillance state," calling out Peter Thiel's Palantir for its ties to the Trump administration and the federal contracts they've secured.
In addition, Ortega is calling for demilitarization of the police, saying that the federal government has authorized the transfer of excess military equipment to local law enforcement agencies. Ortega has the endorsement of Bay Area Reporter, a long-running San Francisco LGBTQ+ weekly newspaper.
Dena Maldonado
Maldonado, a Republican, is a business owner and florist. She boasts the endorsement of the California Republican Party.
On her campaign website, she calls out "endless wars" taking Congress to task for what she says is their allowance of the U.S. "to become involved in prolonged foreign conflicts."
She supports insider trading legislation that would strengthen ethics rules in Congress so that its members cannot use non-public information for personal financial gain. She also supports federal legislation protecting lawful gun ownership and wants to ensure federal agencies respect Second Amendment rights.
Suzanne Chenault
Lawyer, teacher, and parent, Suzanne Chenault is the sole, no-party preference candidate in the race.
She has launched a campaign website in addition to sending KTVU her four-page curriculum vitae. There she details her studies both abroad and at UC Berkeley.
She is currently teaching French and French literature at Berkeley High School, where she has taught since 2017.
Among her priorities is restoring "federal departments and watchdogs" that DOGE, the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency, had depleted in 2025. She also speaks out against the "Military Industrial Complex" and would like to reign in international conflicts and wars.
She adds that she is a human rights lawyer and that as a parent of a young Black man, she has awareness of how discrimination can be nuanced.
District 14 election timeline
June 2 primary and Nov. 3 general election
The top two candidates, of these nine, in the June 2 primary will face off in the general election on Nov. 3. The winner will then serve a two-year term.
June 16 special election and potential Aug. 18 runoff election
The special election adds more dates – the June 16 special primary election for the House seat. This special election has 11 candidates, some of which overlap with the original 9 primary candidates.
The second date associated with the special election is Aug. 18. This would be a runoff election in the scenario that no candidate from the June 16 special election wins the majority vote.