Rep. Eric Swalwell told supporters Monday he’s resigning from Congress, less than 72 hours after the San Francisco Chronicle published allegations from a former staff member accusing him of sexual assault.
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 name a departure date but said his office would keep serving East Bay constituents through the transition.
The story broke Friday. The Chronicle’s reporting detailed an account from an unnamed former staffer who said Swalwell solicited oral sex from her and sexually assaulted her on two separate occasions when she was too intoxicated to consent. The most recent incident, she told the Chronicle, happened in New York in 2024. Medical records and people she spoke with afterward corroborated her account.
CNN published its own reporting the same Friday. Beyond that first woman’s story, three additional women came forward. One alleged Swalwell kissed and touched her without consent. Two others said he sent them unsolicited nude images and inappropriate messages through Snapchat.
It came apart fast. Dozens of campaign staffers and supporters cut ties within hours of the Friday reports. Major labor unions pulled endorsements before the weekend ended. Swalwell had spent months pitching himself as the sharper progressive alternative in a crowded governor’s race, but that campaign was finished by Sunday, when he suspended it. The congressional resignation followed Monday morning.
Swalwell has held his East Bay seat since 2013, representing the East San Francisco Bay Area through more than a decade of fights on the House Intelligence Committee. That tenure ends now under circumstances his office won’t elaborate on beyond the statement he released.
Here’s where it gets complicated for Sacramento. His name stays on the June 2 primary ballot. California’s candidate filing deadline passed before Monday’s announcement, so voters in his district could technically cast ballots for a congressman who won’t show up to serve. That’s not a hypothetical quirk, it’s the actual situation facing the district.
The decision about what happens next belongs to Gov. Gavin Newsom. Under state election law, Newsom can issue a proclamation calling a special election, though his office wouldn’t say Monday whether he’s planning to do that. If Newsom moves, the law sets the election window between 126 and 140 days from the proclamation, which means the earliest the seat could be filled is mid-August 2026.
If Newsom doesn’t act, the seat sits empty until mid-January 2027.
That’s a real cost. House Democrats don’t have votes to spare against the current Republican majority, and a vacant seat from what’s been a safe Democratic district makes every close floor vote slightly harder between now and January. Newsom’s office isn’t telegraphing anything, but the pressure to call the special election won’t stay quiet for long.
The speed of the whole collapse is worth sitting with for a moment. From Friday’s Chronicle publication to Monday’s resignation announcement is under 72 hours. Swalwell spent years building a national profile, ran for president in 2024, and had positioned the governor’s race as his next move. Dozens of institutional relationships, endorsements, and staff commitments unraveled across a single weekend.
What’s left now is a district without representation, a governor who has to make a politically loaded scheduling decision, and a June 2 primary ballot that can’t be reprinted in time. California’s 13th congressional district doesn’t have a congressman and won’t have one through the summer unless Newsom moves quickly.
His office had no comment Monday on timing.