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Rep. Eric Swalwell suspended his campaign for California governor Sunday, days after two news outlets published explosive allegations of sexual assault and misconduct from four women, including a former staff member.
Swalwell’s campaign collapsed Friday soon after the first report in the San Francisco Chronicle, which led dozens of supporters and staffers to drop their support for him. Major unions and congressional candidates pulled their endorsements.
He continued to deny the allegations in a post announcing his withdrawal from the race on social media Sunday.
“To my family, staff, friends, and supporters, 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,” he wrote.
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.
Swalwell, who has represented parts of the East Bay in Congress since 2013, jumped in the race for governor in November.
In a wide-open field, he had better name recognition among 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 its February convention.
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 three were trailing 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.
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