Toggle Daily

AIPAC-backed PAC spends $1.2 million in House race

August 18, 2026

United Democracy Project, a super PAC backed by AIPAC, spent $1.2 million in August supporting Hernandez and opposing Wahab in California's 14th Congressional District.

The Associated Press reports a $1.2 million outlay in August by United Democracy Project, the super political action committee AIPAC backs, spending that favored Hernandez and worked against Wahab, with Federal Election Commission filings behind the number. The New York Times and The Washington Post carry the same total. Party control of this seat, though, is past what any committee can buy. Only Democrats appear on the ballot in California's 14th Congressional District, so the winner will be one of them, and a House majority Republicans already hold by a narrow count gets narrower. All three outlets carry that point.

A Democrat starts here with a comfortable floor. Harris took 65.8% of the district against Trump in 2024, a number the Associated Press, The New York Times and The Washington Post all carry. Proposition 50, the statewide measure California voters passed in 2025, produced the map now in force, the Associated Press reports. It tilted districts toward Democrats across the state and still left the 14th close to what it had been, which The New York Times and The Washington Post carry as well. One pair of candidates therefore runs under two sets of lines. Whoever takes the special election finishes out this year inside today's boundaries, and the redrawn version governs the term that starts in January. Wahab came first twice, on June 2 for the full-term nomination and again on June 16 to fill the seat Swalwell vacated, an account The New York Times carries with the Associated Press. Swalwell denies the allegations.

Four things hold firm: the August spending, the district's partisan lean, a Democratic hold either way, and the January switch between maps. The rest of the record keeps moving. Outside groups have put roughly $4.1 million into this contest since the middle of July, by the Associated Press count, and turnout on June 16 reached nearly 124,000 ballots, some 98% of them absentee, mailed in or brought by hand. California starts no recount on its own, though a registered voter who wants one can ask and pay for it. Those figures sit in the developing half of the record.

Still developing

The outside money beyond that one committee, roughly $4.1 million since the middle of July, and the June 16 turnout numbers are still forming, and sourcing on them was thin at the time of draft. Hernandez and Wahab meet once more this fall for a term that opens in January 2027, under boundaries the new map shifts only a little.

How settled the reporting is

Reported 49% · Contested 0% · Developing 51%

Sources