Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) suspended his campaign for the California governor’s office on Sunday after four women accused him of sexual misconduct, including an alleged sexual assault of a former staff member who was too intoxicated to consent.
Swalwell, who has not resigned his seat in Congress representing California’s 14th District east of San Francisco, denied the accusations in a pair of social media posts while acknowledging “mistakes in judgment.”
“These allegations of sexual assault are flat false,” he said in a video on Friday before ending his campaign. “They are absolutely false. They did not happen.”
The San Francisco Chronicle and CNN broke stories about Swalwell’s alleged misconduct on Friday. The Chronicle interviewed an anonymous, former staffer for the congressman who claims that while she was his employee, she “blacked out and he had sex with me” in 2019. She also alleged a similar incident in 2024 after she had left his employ.
CNN interviewed a woman, who appears to be the same accuser and who described the 2019 and 2024 encounters as rape, as well as three other women who accused Swalwell of behaviors ranging from sending unsolicited nude messages to kissing and touching without consent.
One of the women told CNN that she woke up “extremely drunk inside his hotel room after a night out with the congressman, with little memory of what occurred.”
Swalwell, who launched a long-shot bid for the presidency in 2019, is married with three children.
Before he suspended his campaign for governor, Swalwell typically polled in second place behind Steve Hilton, a Republican political commentator.
With California’s jungle primary system, in which the two leading candidates of any party are the only options in the general election, a Democrat placing second behind a Republican would likely be favored to win in November in the deep-blue state.
Swalwell’s withdrawal from the race will most likely benefit former congresswoman Katie Porter, who is currently polling in fourth, and Tom Steyer, a billionaire who, like Swalwell, mounted a quixotic presidential bid in 2019 and typically places fifth in polls. Another Republican, Chad Bianco, sheriff of Riverside County, holds third place in most polls.
Porter, who rose to prominence as a liberal firebrand in the House, has faced personal and professional misconduct allegations, including a 2023 report from Politico in which anonymous staffers said that she had made racist comments and been abusive towards staff, as well as filings from a contentious 2013 divorce in which her ex-husband accused her of pouring scalding mashed potatoes over his head.
She left the House following a failed 2024 Senate bid.
Following allegations on Friday against Swalwell, the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office announced that it was opening an investigation into one of the incidents, which occurred in New York City.
Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) has said she would move to expel Swalwell from the House.
