Democrats on Capitol Hill and in California have already memory-holed Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) from existence. But there’s one thing about the disgraced ex-pol they want to emulate: his status as a de facto leader among the Democratic “Resistance” movement against President Donald Trump.
In California, where Swalwell had been steadily gaining ground in a crowded 10-person gubernatorial field, few Democrats matched his intensity as a vocal Trump antagonist. The abrupt downfall of Swalwell, 45, who resigned from the House on April 14, not only derailed a gubernatorial campaign that was leading the pack a week earlier. His departure leaves a significant void in the race just weeks before mail-in ballots go out in early May.
California’s all-party primary is June 2. Assuming no gubernatorial candidate in the highly fractured field captures 50% or more, the two top finishers will face off in the Nov. 3 general election.
Eric who?
Swalwell’s collapse was swift and severe.
While rumors of infidelity and inappropriate behavior involving other women had swirled around the married congressman for years, no formal accusations surfaced publicly against Swalwell until April 10. That Friday evening, the San Francisco Chronicle reported a former staffer had alleged he sexually assaulted her twice while she was too intoxicated to consent. Swalwell categorically denied the allegations — but within 48 hours, four additional women came forward with their own claims.
Top campaign aides resigned, labor unions pulled their endorsements, his fundraising infrastructure went offline, and a pair of prominent Senate allies who were Swalwell’s House colleagues for years, Sens. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) and Adam Schiff (D-CA), publicly cut ties. A growing number of Democrats then piled on Swalwell, who was first elected to the House representing a lower East Bay district in 2012, after working as a deputy district attorney in Alameda County and being a Dublin City Council member for more than two years.
For months, Democratic leaders were worried that a fragmented field could split the vote and risk shutting Democrats out of the November contest altogether by boosting the two Republican candidates: Steve Hilton, once an advisor to the then Conservative Party British Prime Minister David Cameron, and Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco. Some Democratic activists had seen Swalwell as a candidate capable of consolidating support and countering anti-Trump momentum, but his exit has upended that calculation.
Those spurning Swalwell included Reps. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), the two-time House Speaker and a political mentor of sorts to Swalwell when he was one of the loudest anti-Trump Democrats in a party that often didn’t know how to counter the president after he won the White House in 2016. Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA), who headed the congressional Progressive Caucus for six years, also issued pointed criticism of Swalwell that underscored how quickly his support within the party had evaporated.
The rapid collapse of Swalwell’s gubernatorial campaign highlighted both his tenuous standing within California political circles and the willingness of party insiders to abandon him as the allegations mounted. The growing allegations spread from California to Washington, D.C., and north to New York City. By Sunday, the Manhattan district attorney’s office confirmed it had opened an investigation. Calls for his expulsion from Congress intensified, and on Monday, April 13, Swalwell announced his resignation effective the next day, bringing his congressional career to an abrupt end.
Wide-open California governor race
In California, Swalwell’s absence has created an opening for former rivals to make power moves, like former Rep. Katie Porter and billionaire Tom Steyer. Both candidates had been polling near Swalwell.
Steyer’s campaign moved quickly to capitalize on the fallout, highlighting a fresh round of endorsements. The new backing includes Rep. Jared Huffman (D-CA) and six state legislators, two of whom had previously supported Swalwell.
Porter’s campaign has yet to roll out new endorsements, but it circulated a memo arguing she stands to gain the most from Swalwell’s exit. The campaign pointed to internal data suggesting his supporters are more inclined to break her way, while emphasizing that she has remained competitive with Steyer despite a significant fundraising gap.
Porter, who harnessed the power of social media and whiteboards to gain popularity while she was in Congress from 2019 to 2025, representing a highly competitive Orange County district, is no stranger to brutal political races. She received nationwide attention for taking CEOs of big pharmaceutical companies to task.
But when Porter tried to move up to the Senate in 2024, she was no match for the campaign machine of Schiff, her then-House colleague. Schiff outmaneuvered her in the state’s dramatic 2024 jungle primary by making a risky gamble of securing his position by boosting a Republican contender and edging Porter, his toughest competitor, out of the race.
In the 2026 governor’s race, Porter has come out strong and unapologetically progressive. The University of California, Irvine, law professor has spent months sharpening her attacks on Trump. Her website outlines how she will fight the Trump administration. Steyer has one too.
At a recent stop in Bakersfield, Porter told voters that “We have an administration that has made clear that it is coming to attack California.”
Veteran political strategist Garry South told the Washington Examiner that Porter and Steyer may struggle to match Swalwell’s well-known anti-Trump rhetoric in the deep blue state.
“Porter holds no office and has no power to counter Trump,” South said in an interview. “All she has to offer is her whiteboard.”
While Trump has so far refrained from commenting on the Swalwell saga, he has already tried to play a dominant role in the gubernatorial contest and taken plenty of shots at term-limited Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA). For his part, the outgoing governor has spent the 15 months so far of Trump’s second, non-consecutive term building his own “Resistance” profile.
Trump and Newsom, who is expected to run for president in 2028, have publicly feuded over just about everything. They have clashed over policies such as immigration, federal troop deployments, wildfires, and the environment. They have sued one another and taken social media trolling to an extreme. Newsom has called Trump an “invasive species” and a “wrecking ball,” while Trump has dubbed him “Newscum” and frequently threatens federal intervention.
Most recently, Trump inserted himself into the governor’s race by endorsing Republican candidate Steve Hilton, a former FOX News television host and one-time Silicon Valley entrepreneur, over his main Republican rival, Riverside County Sheriff Bianco.
Trump posted on social media that he had known the London-born-and-raised Hilton for years and called the conservative commentator “a truly fine man” who could turn around a state beset with notoriously high taxes. California, Trump wrote, “has gone to hell.”
Trump highlighted many of California’s problems and blamed Newsom for each of them. He emphasized high crime rates and taxes and noted that Californians are relocating to other states to escape those burdens.
Hilton has focused his campaign on lowering costs and rooting out fraud.
Although Hilton said he was “honored” to receive Trump’s endorsement, it may ultimately prove to be a liability. The move personally benefited Hilton but strategically harmed the California GOP, which had hoped a stagnant Democratic field would create an opportunity for both Hilton and Bianco to advance to the November general election.
Months of polling showed Hilton and Bianco locked in a tight contest, each hovering in the low double digits. As the only two serious GOP contenders, both had been benefiting from California’s jungle primary system, a dynamic that, left unchecked, could have led to a highly improbable outcome for Republicans in the deep-blue state.
Support had been fragmented across multiple candidates with no clear Democratic front-runner emerging. That split, combined with Republicans consolidating behind two names, had opened the door to the possibility that both Hilton and Bianco would advance to the general election, effectively shutting Democrats out.
But by backing Hilton, the president has likely steered Republican voters decisively in one direction, undercutting Bianco and easing the path for a Democrat to make the runoff. A Democratic candidate in California has a much higher chance of winning the general election than a Republican. Democrats make up nearly 45% of registered voters, while Republicans are just over 25%, making the GOP effectively a third-party in a state where Independents make up about 30% of the electorate.
Jamie Jackson, a Democratic strategist and founder of Vantage Global Media, told the Washington Examiner she believes the endorsement as a whole reflects “a fundamental misreading of the dynamics at play, particularly how strengthening a candidate can come at the cost of controlling the field.”
Hilton told the Washington Examiner he is proud to have Trump’s endorsement. But he says the Swalwell saga points to deep-seated problems of corruption and entitlement by Democrats in California. Hilton also sharply criticized those who previously backed Swalwell.
Talk about allegations of sexual harassment, and worse, by Swalwell had “been an open secret for years,” Hilton said.
“It’s obvious that all these people in the Democrat establishments, the big unions, the teacher unions, SEIU, Adam Schiff, all the Pelosi acolytes in Congress who endorsed him and backed him, they all knew, but they backed him anyway,” Hilton added.
“It exactly shows the arrogance and cynicism and corruption you get with one-party rule. … All they care about is their power. That’s all they care about, and now they’re coming out with all this fake outrage, even though they knew all along and endorsed him anyway and backed him anyway. It is just so contemptuous of regular people and their needs.”
Despite the bad headlines for Democrats, Hilton still has a major electoral math problem. Should he make the November runoff, he’d face a daunting challenge against any Democrat.
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For Swalwell, it’s hard to see how he resurrects his reputation. His downfall marked the abrupt end of a once-ambitious career in Washington, where he had built a national profile through frequent cable media appearances and a political identity centered on aggressively challenging Trump.
Swalwell served as an impeachment manager in the case against Trump, which was tied to the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack. He used his status to cement himself as the anti-Trump candidate not only in D.C., but also in California.
Since Swalwell’s resignation, FBI Director Kash Patel has publicly called on him to meet with federal investigators and encouraged anyone with relevant information to come forward. On April 14, another woman accused Swalwell of rape. The former congressman denies the charges, but the allegations only deepen the crisis.
Barnini Chakraborty (@Barnini) is a senior political reporter at the Washington Examiner.