By Wendy Huang | Candidate, California’s 14th Congressional District
Let me be direct with the voters of Alameda County, because you deserve directness.
As the primary field takes shape, it is becoming clear that this race is shaping up as a contest between two candidates with fundamentally different records and fundamentally different visions for CA-14’s future: State Senator Aisha Wahab and me, Wendy Huang.
I welcome that contrast. I look forward to a vigorous, civil, and substantive debate on the issues — the kind of debate that the people of Hayward, Pleasanton, Livermore, Union City, and Fremont deserve and are hungry for. Senator Wahab and I share a community, and I respect her service. But respecting someone’s service does not mean letting their record go unexamined. The voters of CA-14 have every right to hold both of us accountable — and I intend to hold myself to the same standard.
So let’s talk about the record.
The High-Speed Rail Disaster Happened on Sacramento’s Watch — Her Watch
Since January 2023, Aisha Wahab has served as a California State Senator representing much of the same communities now comprising CA-14. That means the most consequential chapter of California’s High-Speed Rail debacle — the years in which the project’s cost ballooned to between $88 billion and $128 billion, the years in which the federal government rescinded over $5 billion in funding, the years in which a $537 million settlement was approved in a closed session meeting with minimal public scrutiny — all of this happened while she held a seat in the legislature that funds, oversees, and enables this project.
I am not saying Senator Wahab caused every one of these failures. But I am saying this: if you are in Sacramento and this is what is happening, the question voters must ask is — what did you do about it? What bills did you author to demand accountability? What floor speeches did you give calling for transparency? What pressure did you apply to a Governor who, by his own words, considers this project a legacy investment?
The voters of CA-14 deserve answers.
AB 1608: A Secrecy Bill Is Headed to Her Desk — Which Side Is She On?
Right now, at this very moment, a bill is sitting in the California Senate waiting for a vote. Assembly Bill 1608 would allow the inspector general overseeing the High-Speed Rail Authority to withhold records that reveal “weaknesses” that could harm the state, and would prevent the release of internal discussions and personal correspondence if the person involved submits a written request to keep their records private.
Critics have called it a bill that gives the inspector general “the authority and discretion to keep any audit confidential if they feel it would pose a risk to the project.” Others have said it creates a “veil of secrecy” over a project already criticized for its lack of transparency.
Senator Wahab will have to vote on this bill. The voters of CA-14 deserve to know, before June 2nd, exactly how she plans to vote — and why.
My position is simple and unambiguous: if you are spending taxpayer money, the taxpayers see the books. No exceptions. No “weaknesses” carve-outs. No closed sessions for half-billion-dollar settlements. I will oppose any legislation, at any level of government, that makes it harder for citizens to scrutinize how their money is being spent on this project.
The Tax Question
In 2024, Senator Wahab co-authored Senate Bill 1031, the Connect Bay Area Act, which would have authorized a Bay Area regional ballot measure generating a minimum of $750 million per year in new revenue — through mechanisms including a sales tax, a regional payroll tax, a parcel tax, or a vehicle registration charge.
The bill passed the Senate 26-10 but was ultimately pulled after opposition from several corners, notably including San Jose and Santa Clara County.
I want to be fair here: Senator Wahab’s intent with SB 1031 was to stabilize transit funding, and regional transit does need attention. That is not in dispute. What is in dispute is whether the answer to decades of mismanagement is to ask the same taxpayers who have already been failed to dig deeper into their pockets — before we have demanded a full accounting of where the money already spent has gone.
My view: accountability and transparency must come before new revenue. You do not hand a blank check to an institution that just approved a $537 million settlement in a closed session.
The Housing Question You Should Also Ask
This is a transit race, but it is also a cost-of-living race — and the two are connected. People drive because they cannot afford to live near where they work. Senator Wahab now chairs the California Senate Housing Committee. In her first hearing as chair, she said California needs to move away from “development, development, development” and expressed skepticism that increased housing supply would lead to lower housing prices.
I respectfully but firmly disagree. The Bay Area housing crisis is, at its core, a supply problem. Policies that slow new construction in already expensive communities make the I-580 parking lot worse — not better — because they keep workers priced out of the neighborhoods near their jobs. Transit reform and housing reform are the same fight.
What I Want From This Debate
I am not running this race to attack Senator Wahab personally. Her story — raised in foster care, first Afghan-American elected to public office in California — reflects the promise of this country, and I mean that sincerely.
But policy is not personal. And the people of CA-14 have been let down by their representatives for too long to accept vague commitments and resume-based politics as a substitute for accountability.
Here is what I am asking for: a real, public, substantive debate on the issues that actually affect the daily lives of the people in this district.
Where does Senator Wahab stand on AB 1608 — secrecy or transparency?
Where does she stand on redirecting federal Mega and INFRA grants toward ACE and Valley Link — transit that works now, not in 2040?
Where does she stand on protecting local city budgets in Hayward, Pleasanton, Livermore, and Union City from state-level tax capture?
These are not trick questions. They are the questions every commuter in CA-14 is living every single day.
I am Wendy Huang. I came to this country from Taiwan with nothing but a willingness to work for it. I built a career in Silicon Valley, raised a family here, and fought political insiders even when it cost me. I know the difference between a system that works and one that has failed — because I have spent my career fixing the former and calling out the latter.
The voters of CA-14 deserve that debate. I am ready to have it, anywhere and anytime.
Vote Wendy Huang for Congress — June 2, 2026. voteforwendy.com
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