Rep. Eric Swalwell announced Monday he will resign from Congress, one day after suspending his campaign for California governor following sexual assault allegations from four women, including a former staff member.
Swalwell said he would “fight the serious, false allegation made against me. However, I must take responsibility and ownership for the mistakes I did make.” He didn’t give a specific date for his departure, but said he would work with congressional staff to ensure his East Bay constituents continue to get services while the transition happens.
The allegations broke publicly Friday when the San Francisco Chronicle published an account from an unnamed former staff member who said Swalwell solicited oral sex from her while she worked for him, and sexually assaulted her twice when she was too drunk to consent. The most recent incident, she said, took place in New York in 2024. Her account was corroborated by medical records and by people she spoke with after that last incident.
CNN published its own account the same Friday, including that woman’s story and accounts from three other women. One said Swalwell kissed and touched her without consent. Two others alleged he sent them unsolicited nude photos and inappropriate messages through Snapchat.
The collapse was fast and nearly total.
Dozens of supporters and staffers cut ties within hours. Major unions and congressional candidates pulled their endorsements before the weekend was out. His gubernatorial campaign, which had positioned him as a progressive alternative to the more cautious contenders, was done.
Swalwell has represented the East San Francisco Bay Area since 2013. His name will still appear on the June 2 primary ballot because he resigned after the state’s candidate filing deadline, meaning voters in his district could technically cast ballots for a man who won’t serve.
Now the question lands entirely on Gov. Gavin Newsom’s desk. Under state election law, Newsom has the discretion to call a special election to fill the seat, and his office wouldn’t say Monday whether he plans to do so. If Newsom issues a proclamation, state law requires the election to happen between 126 and 140 days later, which puts the earliest possible date in mid-August.
If Newsom does nothing, the seat stays vacant until mid-January 2027.
That’s not an abstract problem. House Democrats are already outnumbered by the Republican majority, and one empty seat from a safe Democratic district makes that gap slightly worse for every vote between now and January. The pressure on Newsom to act will be real, even if his office isn’t showing its cards yet.
The Swalwell story moved fast from the moment the Chronicle’s reporting became public, with the resignation coming less than 72 hours after the first allegations appeared in print. His response to the Chronicle report, and then CNN’s broader account, didn’t slow anything down. Both the scale of the alleged misconduct and the corroborating detail in the original story, medical records and contemporaneous witnesses, made it hard for institutional supporters to stay put.
He’s still a sitting congressman for now. His staff will keep handling casework. But the political career he built over 13 years in the Bay Area, and whatever shot he had at Sacramento, is over.
The special election question is the live issue. Newsom’s office has a decision to make, and every day without an answer means the August window tightens. Democrats who are watching the House majority math closely won’t stay quiet about that for long.
Swalwell’s district covers cities including Dublin, Fremont, and Pleasanton, a mix of suburban and exurban communities that have sent him back to Washington six times. Whoever eventually holds that seat will inherit a district that’s reliably Democratic in federal elections, which makes the vacancy frustrating rather than threatening for the party. But frustrating still has consequences when margins in the House are this thin.
His departure also reshapes the California governor’s race. The Democratic primary field loses its loudest voice on national security and one of its most recognizable faces from years of House Intelligence Committee work. The candidates who remain will compete for some of the donor and activist energy that briefly gathered around him.
What the race looks like now, and who Swalwell’s former supporters move toward, won’t be clear for weeks.