Bay Area attorney enters race to replace Swalwell with $1 million war chest

FREMONT — A Fremont lawyer with a million-dollar war chest is challenging five other candidates in the race to fill U.S. Rep. Eric Swalwell’s open East Bay congressional seat.

“My goal is to get more people involved in the process,” Rakhi Israni told Bay Area News Group on Monday. “People want fresh thinking in Congress.”

Israni, 52, is a married mother of four who has lived in Fremont for over 20 years after relocating from Houston, Texas, to start an educational company called Excel Test Prep. She has handled legal services for nonprofit organizations and is a graduate of the Houston Police Academy.

A Democrat with no prior experience as an elected official, Israni said she hopes to bring a new perspective to Capitol Hill.

“I focus on two things: family and service,” she said.

Israni said she is going into the campaign backed by a million dollars in funding from “excited donors.”

“People are overall really excited about the campaign, wanting to get involved — not only with their funds, but with their time,” Israni said.

She will be taking on state Sen. Aisha Wahab, D-Fremont, BART Board President Melissa Hernandez, small business owner Matt Ortega, immigration attorney Abrar Qadir, and retired tech executive Wendy Huang, who is the race’s sole Republican candidate.

District 14 covers parts of the East Bay, Tri-Valley and Tri-Cities areas, including cities such as Fremont, Hayward, Dublin, Livermore and Pleasanton, among others. Swalwell is currently in this year’s gubernatorial race to replace termed-out Gavin Newsom; he has not yet endorsed a candidate to replace him.

The filing deadline for the District 14 race is March 6, with a primary election held June 2. The top two vote-getters will face off in November, regardless of party.

Israni said her main focus is on developing ways to help address the region’s mounting cost of living, as well as “unaffordable” health care prices.

“I’m committed to improving the quality of life for people in the district,” Israni said. “I have firsthand experience seeing how policies are not helping the people that need help.”

Her competitors have also vowed to address similar issues on the campaign trail.

Wahab, 39, was elected to Hayward City Council in 2018, before becoming the state senator for District 10 in 2022, representing Fremont, Hayward, Newark, Union City, Alameda and parts of the South Bay.

Hernandez, 50, spent a dozen years on the Dublin City Council, and was the city’s first Latina mayor, as well as the first Latina to serve on the BART Board of Directors.

Ortega is a 41-year-old small business owner and digital marketing consultant who grew up in Hayward and said he will champion immigration and affordability issues.

Huang, 54, is a Taiwanese immigrant who has lived in the U.S. for about 40 years and says residents are tired of politicians who will not protect constitutional rights.

Qadir is an immigration attorney who grew up in Pleasanton and says on his website that he is campaigning to be “a fresh voice for the new direction of the Democratic Party.”