Hayward council member Aisha Wahab, a progressive elected just a few months ago, became the first candidate to jump into the race for Rep. Eric Swalwell’s East Bay congressional seat Friday.

Wahab, 31, became one of the first Afghan-American elected officials in the country when she won her council seat last year. She said she planned to focus her congressional campaign on protecting the middle class and fighting for progressive issues like Medicare for All and living wages.

“I am a product of America, from foster care to public education to community organizing,” Wahab said in an interview, vowing to “push the boundaries of the discussion” in Congress.

Swalwell’s announcement this week that he’s running for president could set off a crowded race to represent the district, which includes the Tri-Valley area as well as Hayward, parts of Fremont and several surrounding communities.

State Sen. Bob Wieckowski, who’s seen by local Democratic leaders as a likely frontrunner, also said Friday he was in the process of forming an exploratory committee to run for the seat.

“I am honored and encouraged by the level of support I have received from across the district,” he said in an email.

Already, Wahab has been compared by local observers to the young progressive women elected to Congress last year, including New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Massachusetts Rep. Ayanna Pressley, whom she called “inspiring.”

“I’m genuinely very proud of all the women who were elected to serve,” she said. “But we all have different elements that make us special in our own rights.”

Wahab was born in New York, and she and her sister went into the foster care system at a young age after their parents passed away, growing up for part of the time in group homes. She was later adopted and lived in Fremont and Hayward.

An IT consultant, she previously worked as a board member for local nonprofits like the Afghan Coalition, Abode Services, and Tri-City Volunteers. She got her bachelor’s degree in political science from San Jose State University and her master’s in business administration at Cal State East Bay.

On the city council in the last four months, she’s pushed for issues like accelerating a bump in the city’s minimum wage, expanding renter protections and training city police officers to de-escalate confrontations. She’s also ruffled feathers among some of her colleagues in debates over how the council should work.

Wahab argued that she shouldn’t be underestimated even though she’s only been in office a few months.

“I think lived experience holds just as much weight, and currently we need more regular people in Congress,” she said, citing her family’s experience of losing their home and small retail business during the recession, as well as the student loans she still owes.

During her 2018 race for city council, Wahab faced open racism, even having one woman at a campaign event ask her if she took money from ISIS.

“It does hurt you, it does kind of affect how you feel,” she said. “But I don’t want to focus on that. I spend time educating individuals about who I am.”

Swalwell formally filed with the FEC this week a notice that he was ending his re-election campaign, and he’s said he won’t run simultaneously for president and for Congress. But he has seemed to leave open the possibility that he could drop out of the presidential race and run for re-election sometime before the December filing deadline if his White House bid doesn’t take off.

Wahab said she was in the race “all the way” but if Swalwell decided to run for re-election, “we will re-evaluate then and there.”

Swalwell’s campaign declined to comment on the race in the district.