State Sen. Aisha Wahab won a special election Tuesday to represent California's 14th Congressional District, defeating fellow Democrat Melissa Hernandez to serve out the remaining months of former Rep. Eric Swalwell's term, The Associated Press and NBC News projected.

The Bay Area contest drew more than $4 million in late outside spending, most of it aimed at stopping Wahab, and the outcome extends a string of losses for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee in Democratic primaries. Wahab and Hernandez will meet again Nov. 3 for a full two-year term in a redrawn district.

The vote

With 95 percent of the expected ballots counted, Wahab led 53 percent to 47 percent, well below her 43 percent-to-17 percent margin over Hernandez in the June 16 primary that pushed the race to a runoff. United Democracy Project, a super PAC aligned with AIPAC, spent about $2.5 million against Wahab, according to NBC News; Federal Election Commission records cited by CBS News showed the group put $1.2 million into the race in August alone. Outside groups directed roughly $3.7 million toward Hernandez, a Bay Area Rapid Transit board director and former Dublin mayor.

"I am very proud of this district looking at the millions of dollars of outside money pouring in with false rhetoric, false narratives, and false records, and seeing through it and voting for me," Wahab told CBS News Bay Area on Thursday.

Wahab, elected to the state Senate in 2022 to represent parts of Silicon Valley and the East Bay, has said Israel's conduct in its war against Hamas in Gaza is a genocide. At an April candidate forum, Hernandez was the only contender who did not answer "yes" when asked whether Israel was committing genocide. The AIPAC-aligned PAC also lost a higher-profile race last month in Michigan, where more than $30 million spent on behalf of Rep. Haley Stevens failed to lift her past former public-health official Abdul El-Sayed in the Democratic Senate primary.

The Swalwell backdrop

The seat opened only because Swalwell resigned in April amid sexual-assault and misconduct allegations from multiple women, which he has denied. Fox News framed the special election as the closing chapter of a broader Swalwell scandal, arguing that newly disclosed FBI material vindicated former Speaker Kevin McCarthy's 2023 removal of Swalwell from the House Intelligence Committee. FBI agents seized Swalwell's iPhone and MacBook Pro at San Francisco International Airport on Saturday and searched his Washington residence Sunday as part of a criminal probe, CBS News reported. The White House on Monday released 97 pages of declassified files on the FBI's earlier investigation into Swalwell's 2015 relationship with suspected Chinese intelligence operative Christine "Fang Fang" Fang; Swalwell was never charged in that matter.

Early voting for the November rematch begins Oct. 5. Hernandez told CBS News she expected to reclaim Dublin, the city she once led, in a district that will add 26,000 voters.

"Our team has done an amazing job to be able to close a gap by 20 points. I think folks need to remember that," Hernandez said.