By Jeanne Kuang, Cal Matters
This story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters.
Rep. Eric Swalwell suspended his campaign for California governor Sunday evening, days after two news outlets published explosive allegations of sexual assault and misconduct from four women, including a former staff member. He continued to deny the allegations in an announcement on social media.
Swalwell’s campaign collapsed Friday soon after the first report in the San Francisco Chronicle, in which the unnamed former staff member said Swalwell solicited oral sex from her while she was working for him and twice sexually assaulted her when she was too drunk to consent. The account was corroborated with medical records and by people the woman spoke with after the last incident, which she said took place in New York in 2024.
CNN later Friday published the same woman’s account, as well as those of three other women, one of whom said he kissed and touched her inappropriately and two of whom alleged he sent unsolicited nude photos and other inappropriate messages on Snapchat.
Dozens of supporters and staffers quickly dropped their support for him. Major unions and congressional candidates pulled their endorsements.
In his post, Swalwell apologized to his “family, staff, friends, and supporters,” saying “I am deeply sorry for mistakes in judgment I’ve made in my past. I will fight the serious, false allegations that have been made — but that’s my fight, not a campaign’s.”
Because he is leaving the race after a state deadline to file for or withdraw from a race, his name will still appear on the June 2 primary ballot.
One of the leading Democratic candidates for governor, Swalwell appeared to have dug his heels in Friday night. His attorney, Elias Dabaie, gave an interview on CNN saying he was still in the race. Swalwell himself spoke only in a video he posted to Instagram, calling the allegations “flat false.”
But by then he had already hemorrhaged supporters from across the Democratic establishment. Major labor unions on Friday suspended their support and over the weekend held emergency meetings to withdraw their endorsements. Democratic congressional leaders called for him to drop out, staffers quit or distanced themselves from him and the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office announced it would look into the alleged 2024 assault.
He also faces mounting pressure from colleagues to resign from Congress, where he has represented parts of the San Francisco East Bay since 2013.
Reached by phone Sunday morning, campaign manager Yardena Wolf, Swalwell’s former congressional chief of staff, said she and other campaign staff had not spoken with the congressman. She said she was remained on Swalwell’s payroll to sign her subordinates’ paychecks.
Wolf was with Swalwell at a town hall in Sacramento last week where he forcefully denied rumors of inappropriate behavior to reporters and said he had never had any sexual encounters with any staff.
Swalwell ran primarily on his antagonism toward President Donald Trump, telling voters that fighting Trump is the California governor’s “number one job.”
In a field of seven major Democrats, he had better name recognition with liberal voters than many other candidates from his frequent appearances on cable news and his role chairing the second Trump impeachment in 2021. He quickly rose to the top of the polls among Democratic candidates, and garnered the largest share of support from state Democratic Party delegates during a convention in February.
He was also the center of controversies, including challenges about his California residency and questions about who invests in his AI campaign finance startup, which is used by some of his Democratic colleagues in Congress.
For much of the past two weeks, he was in a three-way tie for lead Democrat in the race, along with Katie Porter and Tom Steyer, all of whom trailed the two Republican candidates, Steve Hilton and Chad Bianco, raising concerns among Democrats that the two Republicans could take the top two spots in the June 2 primary election, advance to November and lock Democrats out of the seat.
Swalwell’s exit could allow another Democrat to surge into the lead, if most of his supporters flock to the same candidate.
