Kiley, Wahab, Desmond hold onto leads in House districts

By Chris Woodward
The Center Square

There are still 37 days left for counting ballots, but Democrat Aisha Wahab has a big lead in the race for California’s Congressional District 14.

Meanwhile, U.S. Rep. Kevin Kiley, an independent who caucuses with Republicans, is holding on to a slight lead in the race for District 6. And Jim Desmond remains the frontrunner in District 48. Desmond, a Republican, hopes to succeed longtime Republican U.S. Rep. Darrell Issa, who decided against running in the redrawn San Diego County district.

Wahab, a Democrat currently serving in the California state Senate, had 34.3% of the vote in the District 14 race.

Democrat Melissa Hernandez has 16.1% of the vote, followed by Republican Wendy Huang at 16% and Republican Dena Maldonado with 14.8%

That’s according to Wednesday afternoon’s updated results from the California Secretary of State’s Office’s website, following Tuesday’s primary. That’s also with all of the precincts partially reporting.

“I am proud and grateful to every Democratic, Republican, Libertarian, and independent voter who cast their ballot for me,” Huang told The Center Square on Wednesday via email. “I will not let them down.”

Wahab and Hernandez did not respond to The Center Square’s request for comments. Maldonado was unavailable.

However, Maldonado told The Center Square in May that she was concerned about the southern border and affordability.

“The cost of living is pushing me out of California as a native,” said Maldonado.

District 14 was the San Francisco Bay Area district that Eric Swalwell served prior to his resignation from the U.S. House and the California gubernatorial race amid sexual assault allegations. (The district also includes areas east of the bay.)

Further south, District 48 frontrunner Desmond is currently a member of San Diego County Board of Supervisors. He said he won’t forget the voters if he’s elected to Congress.

“They voted for a secure border, lower taxes, and a chance to actually afford the life they’ve worked for,” said Desmond in a Tuesday press release.

San Diego Councilmember Marni von Wilpert is a Democrat and had 19.5% of the vote in the District 48 race as of Wednesday afternoon.

In addition to stopping what Democrats call the chaos caused by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, von Wilpert told The Center Square in May that she will introduce legislation to “repeal Trump’s cruel cuts to Medicare, Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act.”

She also vowed to reassert Congress’s authority to authorize tariffs.

District 6 was known as District 3 before it was redrawn to favor Democrats with last fall’s passage of Proposition 50. The district is inside Sacramento County.

As of Wednesday, Kiley had 26.8% compared to Republican Michael Stansfield’s 22.2% and Democrat Richard Pan’s 21.2%. Kiley will advance to the general election, but the race is too close to know whether it’ll be Stansfield or Pan challenging him on Nov. 3 in the redrawn district.

In April, Kiley told The Center Square that he was not a fan of the gerrymandering war that has broken out across the country.

“I have opposed these mid-decade redraws in every state where they’ve occurred, whether that’s Texas, whether it’s California, whether it’s Indiana, which ultimately rejected it; now Virginia and Florida,” Kiley said.

Kiley was a Republican until earlier this year, when he changed to independent. He is listed on the Secretary of State’s website as having no party preference.