Rep. Swalwell Suspends Gubernatorial Campaign: ‘Sorry for Mistakes’

Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) announced that he is suspending his campaign to be the next governor of California, days after he was accused of sexual assault by several women.

In a post on X, Swalwell expressed that he was “deeply sorry for mistakes in judgment” that he had made, while adding that he would “fight the serious, false allegations.”

“I am suspending my campaign for Governor,” Swalwell said. “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,” Swalwell continued.

Swalwell’s announcement came after a former staffer told the San Francisco Chronicle that the Democratic congressman had allegedly sexually assaulted her on different occasions, once in 2019 and again in 2024, and that he had made attempts to “kiss her” while she worked for him:

She said Swalwell, who is married and 17 years her senior at age 45, tried to kiss her in her car when she drove him home from a donor meeting one night. Driving him to another event weeks later, she said Swalwell pulled out his penis in the car and asked her to perform oral sex on him. She said she did so in a parking lot.

In September 2019, the woman said, Swalwell invited her out for drinks and she became so severely intoxicated that she does not remember the rest of the night. She said she woke up naked in Swalwell’s hotel bed and could feel the effect of vaginal intercourse. She said Swalwell distanced himself from her afterward and the relationship faded.

Five years later, the woman said, she attended an April 2024 charity gala where Swalwell was honored. The woman, who no longer worked for Swalwell, said they met for drinks afterward, during which she became so inebriated that she remembers only snippets of the night, including pushing Swalwell away and telling him, “No,” while he allegedly forced himself on her.

The former staffer also told CNN about both instances in which Swalwell had allegedly sexually assaulted her. “Three other women” also accused Swalwell of “alleged various kinds of sexual misconduct.”