So long, Eric Swalwell. Don’t let the screen door Fang – er, bang – you on the rear on your way out.
— Rep. Eric Swalwell (@RepSwalwell) April 13, 2026
Rep. Eric Swalwell on Monday announced his resignation from Congress, following calls from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle calling for him to step down in the wake of sexual assault and misconduct allegations. …
The news comes a day after the representative suspended his bid for California governor. It also comes the same day that the House Ethics Committee said it was launching a probe into Swalwell.
Democrats spent the last three days or so throwing Swalwell under the bus. They wanted to kick him out in order to extricate themselves from a predicament in California’s primary that might have resulted in having two Republicans on the general election ballot. Until today, though, Democrats appeared reluctant to demand his resignation from Congress, in large part because Democrats want to keep the GOP margin as tight as possible to prevent Donald Trump’s reconciliation package from passing over the next few weeks.
One has to wonder whether Swalwell’s resignation was payback for the apparent stab in the back over the past few days. Democrats had tried to work out a deal with Republicans where both Swalwell and Texas Republican Tony Gonzales would get expelled at the same time, maintaining the gap. Both would have left the House anyway at the end of this session; Swalwell chose not to run for his House seat so he could run for the California governor’s office. Gonzales dropped out of a run-off after his affair partner committed suicide by self-immolation.
With Swalwell resigning, though, Democrats lose their leverage to force an expulsion vote on Gonzales. Maybe the GOP will want to perform a little hygiene by pushing Gonzales out, but … now they don’t have to do so in order to kick Swalwell out of Congress. Swalwell hasn’t indicated when his resignation will be effective, but he probably can’t hold out for long enough to force the issue with Gonzales now. The pitchfork-and-torch brigade will insist on his immediate exit, and he won’t have any reason to delay it.
We’ll have more on this as the story develops. John will have some further analysis later for sure.
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