{"id":600518,"date":"2026-04-13T05:04:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-13T05:04:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/600518\/"},"modified":"2026-04-13T05:04:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-13T05:04:11","slug":"eric-swalwell-ends-bid-for-california-governor-after-sexual-misconduct-allegations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/600518\/","title":{"rendered":"Eric Swalwell ends bid for California governor after sexual misconduct allegations"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n Rep. Eric Swalwell said Sunday he would withdraw from the California governor\u2019s race in the wake of allegations of sexual misconduct<\/a> that led to a nearly immediate campaign collapse, as staffers quit and prominent Democratic supporters urged him to drop out<\/a>.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cI am suspending my campaign for Governor,\u201d he posted on X. \u201cTo my family, staff, friends, and supporters, I am deeply sorry for mistakes in judgment I\u2019ve made in my past. I will fight the serious, false allegations that have been made \u2014 but that\u2019s my fight, not a campaign\u2019s.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Swalwell was long considered a top contender in a wide-open field with several prominent Democrats and two Republicans ahead of the state\u2019s June 2 nonpartisan primary. But on Friday, his campaign was roiled when CNN<\/a> and the San Francisco Chronicle<\/a> published reports in which women accused Swalwell of sexual misconduct.\n <\/p>\n

\n A former Swalwell staffer told CNN the congressman raped her when she was heavily intoxicated and left her bruised and bleeding. Swalwell has strongly denied the allegations.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cI was pushing him off of me, saying no,\u201d the woman told CNN of the incident, which she said happened in 2024 in New York City after she had stopped working in Swalwell\u2019s office. \u201cHe didn\u2019t stop.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n The Manhattan District Attorney\u2019s Office said Saturday it is investigating the allegation<\/a> of sexual assault the woman said took place in New York. The Alameda County District Attorney\u2019s Office told CNN in a statement Saturday it is \u201cevaluating whether any alleged criminal conduct occurred within\u201d the Bay Area county, where the same woman accused Swalwell of a separate act of sexual misconduct she said took place in 2019.\n <\/p>\n

\n Three other women who spoke with CNN also alleged various kinds of sexual misconduct by the Democratic congressman \u2014 including Swalwell sending them unsolicited explicit messages or nude photos. Swalwell has denied the women\u2019s allegations.\n <\/p>\n

\n Within hours of the reports on the allegations, key allies, including campaign chair Rep. Jimmy Gomez and Sens. Ruben Gallego and Adam Schiff, pulled their support<\/a> almost immediately, with new statements denouncing Swalwell arriving in rapid succession. An independent expenditure group backing him announced it would shut down.\n <\/p>\n

\n A governor\u2019s race that was already drawing national attention was thrown further into flux. Among the top Democrats left are billionaire Tom Steyer, former Rep. Katie Porter, former Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan. Chad Bianco, the Riverside County sheriff, and Steve Hilton, a former Fox News host endorsed by President Donald Trump, are the Republican contenders.\n <\/p>\n

\n Mahan released a scathing statement in the wake of Swalwell\u2019s announcement, writing that California deserved better.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cEric Swalwell is done. Done abusing women. Done climbing the political ladder. Done,\u201d Mahan wrote on X<\/a>. \u201cExiting a race you should never have entered deserves no credit. It is an overdue acknowledgment of what the brave survivors who came forward already made clear: Eric Swalwell represented the worst of politics.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n It\u2019s unclear whether Swalwell will remain in the US House until his term expires in January. Multiple Democrats on Sunday<\/a> called on Swalwell to leave Congress.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cWe should not tolerate this behavior,\u201d Virginia Rep. Eugene Vindman told CNN on Sunday. \u201cRep. Eric Swalwell needs to go.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Democratic Rep. Pramila Jayapal of Washington said she would vote to expel both him and Republican Rep. Tony Gonzales of Texas, who is under investigation<\/a> by the House Ethics Committee over sexual misconduct allegations.\n <\/p>\n

\n More than 50 former Swalwell staffers signed on to a letter earlier Sunday calling on him to drop out of the race and resign from Congress.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThe allegations reported by the San Francisco Chronicle and CNN are serious, credible, and demand accountability,\u201d the letter said. \u201cWe stand unequivocally with our colleague, who showed extraordinary courage in coming forward to share her truth. We believe her.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n This story has been updated with additional information.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rep. Eric Swalwell said Sunday he would withdraw from the California governor\u2019s race in the wake of allegations…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":268414,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-600518","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/600518","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=600518"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/600518\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/268414"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=600518"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=600518"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=600518"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}