Seven-term Democratic US (14th District) representative Eric Swalwell, known for his persistent and vocal opposition to Donald Trump, announced Thursday night he will run for governor of California.
Swalwell’s announcement followed billionaire environmental activist Tom Steyer’s entry to what is shaping up to be a crowded field of possible successors to outgoing Gov. Gavin Newsom, who is nearing the end of his term.
A former Alameda county prosecutor raised in Dublin, Swalwell, 45, rose to prominence largely through his many clashes with Trump, a profile supporters say could bolster his appeal among Democratic voters.
Swalwell briefly sought the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination and later served as a House impeachment manager during Trump’s second impeachment trial, which centered on Trump’s role in the 6 January 2021 attack on the US Capitol.
On Capitol Hill, he served for eight years on the House intelligence committee, including the CIA subcommittee, and was a key Democratic voice on national security and election interference issues. He is also a founding member of the Future Forum caucus.
Currently, it appears Swalwell will run against former Los Angeles mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, former state attorney general and US representative Xavier Becerra and former state controller Betty Yee. Polling has shown the race for governor lacks a clear frontrunner after former vice-president Kamala Harris and California senator Alex Padilla both declined to run. Former representative Katie Porter, initially a favorite, has struggled recently after threatening to walk out of a local television interview and after footage surfaced of her berating a staff member.
The two most prominent Republicans running for governor are Riverside county sheriff Chad Bianco and former David Cameron adviser Steve Hilton. The field could expand, with developer Rick Caruso also reportedly weighing a run.
Whoever comes out on top, California’s next governor will inherit a long list of significant challenges, including persistent unemployment and poverty rates, education, water shortages, wildfires, rising costs of living and recurring budget deficits.
Running the state of California is a tall order. I remember a political advisor saying that running California might be harder than running the country. I would like to think that’s a stretch, but I understood his point. Our state is a mess. Someone needs to step up to the plate and get things done.
It should also be noted that though he was a member of the Intelligence Committee, this did not preclude him from having a very close personal relationship with Christine Fang, a suspected operative with the Chinese government. The FBI had to intervene and she left the country. Also, Mr Swalwell has continued to trumpet the Russian Collusion hoax, which has been disproven and was in fact initiated by the Hillary campaign.
I would never vote for him. He seems dense.
If we voted on the basis of “density” the current administration would be out of a job.
Every time I see someone use the term “Russian Collusion”, it’s clearly just an attempt to set up a false narrative. The investigation and Muehler report were explicitly about Russian interference in the 2016 election, and it’s very clear there was significant organized Russian government interference with the clear intention to get Trump elected. That’s just known fact. There were contacts between some senior Trump campaign officials with Russian operatives, and the report Muehler explicitly concluded that they were unable to definitely say whether there was or was not collusion.
Swalwell was informed by the FBI of the espionage and cut ties. He wasn’t even accused of wrongdoing.
He was also later investigated by the House Ethics Committee and they did not impose any kind of sanction.
The thought of Eric Swalwell as our governor scares me even more than him as the inept congressman. A lot of us people that voted for him the first time around are resentful. He portrayed himself as the middle of the road normal person who had respect for law enforcement community. He then gets into office and makes a hard left turn into orbit and works against everything that we thought he would have upheld..
I was sad to see Porter drop out but in the end she was just like the rest of them. Too bad.
I find no indication online that Porter has dropped out.
Right. She took a hit with both incidents and ended up apologizing but she’s still in it. Bad optics though that could hurt her.
Porter has not dropped out.
The Democrat political establishment actually pushed her out twice. The first time for Adam Shiff for Senate they made her get out of the race so he could win. Now they seem to be trying to be doing the same thing to make room for Sealwell .
Your choice to avoid the adjectival form is a tell.
On the other foot, I was glad to read that MTG has discovered the importance of keeping the discourse civil after years of hard charging in the opposite direction. I guess she had a hard time putting herself in the shoes of someone on the receiving end of all that hate until very recently.
Any rival can look through his campaign finance expenditures to find the Congressman likes to treat himself to luxury hotels, limousines, hard to get sports tickets, fancy steak dinners and first class airfare. Probably not illegal but indicative of a man who is in politics for his personal aggrandizement over the people he serves.
I can’t think of anyone in Congress – on either side of the aisle – who doesn’t take advantage of the perks that come with that job. It’s not an excuse, it’s just a fact.
I would venture to say that expenditures disclosed to the FEC are more than “probably” not illegal.
Really? Refer that to a partisan DOJ and see where it goes…We are in Orwellandia! Bananalandia!
Unless people stand up! I watched The American Revolution. It was ugly! It succeeded, and yet success was not the likely outcome!!
Our republic stands as a fluke of history while it stands…