When Cheyenne Hunt first arrived on Capitol Hill as a staffer in 2020, several other young women working there warned her privately: Stay away from Rep. Eric Swalwell.
Swalwell could be “creepy,” Hunt said other women told her, especially over social media.
Six years later, Hunt is one of several women who have leveraged their large followings online to go after Swalwell, enlisting women to come forward with their stories and connecting them with reporters at CNN and other outlets. Late last week, allegations that include sexual assault of a former staffer and sending unsolicited explicit messages to young women came to light in investigations published by CNN and the San Francisco Chronicle. On Tuesday, a woman accused Swalwell of raping her in 2018.
Swalwell’s attorney Sara Azari said Swalwell denies “each and every allegation of sexual misconduct and assault” made against him, calling them “false, fabricated, and deeply offensive.” “This is a ruthless and shameless attempt to smear Congressman Swalwell,” Azari said of the allegations.
In recent days, Swalwell (D) exited the California governor’s race and resigned from Congress. He apologized for some “mistakes in judgment” he made while in office in a statement on Monday. The Washington Post has not independently verified the allegations, and Azari and Swalwell’s Capitol Hill staff did not respond to a detailed list of questions for this article.
The stunning fall has Hunt and others asking how someone who was dogged by persistent rumors of inappropriate behavior toward women similar to what she heard in 2020 could have risen so high and so fast in a party that says it supports women’s rights.
“We do need to take a look inward as a party because it was an open secret,” said Hunt, the executive director of the youth group Gen Z for Change, referring to the Democratic Party. “Not necessarily that he was assaulting people but that he was a creep. That was well known.”
Swalwell’s career took off like a meteor at the same time women allege he was harassing them. His political trajectory — described here with the help of interviews with more than a dozen former staffers and political operatives, some of whom who spoke on the condition of anonymity to recount private discussions — suggests a Democratic Party enamored with a young congressman’s talent for sound bites and landing blows against President Donald Trump.
Rumors that Swalwell, 45, had affairs in Washington followed him, but there is no evidence that the more serious allegations of sexual assault were circulating among Democrats while his career took off, these people said. This week, Democratic politicians who were close allies of Swalwell including Rep. Nancy Pelosi, the former House speaker from California, and Sen. Ruben Gallego, from neighboring Arizona, have said they knew nothing about allegations against Swalwell. Gallego told reporters on Monday he believed Swalwell led a “double life.”
In a video message Swalwell posted earlier this week, he apologized to his wife for “mistakes” that he described as solely being between them.
Ultimately it was a group of liberal online influencers — not party bigwigs — who made it their mission to ensure that someone facing multiple allegations of misconduct should not be elevated to the highest office in California.
A fast rise
Swalwell, a former prosecutor, came to Congress in 2013 knowing he had to win over his Democratic colleagues. Some of them were skeptical of the 32-year-old newcomer after he had taken out 20-term Rep. Pete Stark, a fellow Democrat who was then the dean of the California’s 53-member delegation.
He took the job seriously, according to his former staffers, who said he showed a penchant for making TV appearances at whatever time a channel would have him on. He encouraged his older House colleagues to use social media to reach constituents, and dove into national security issues as a member of the Homeland Security Committee.
More important, he made the most powerful ally a House Democrat could have: Pelosi, who was known for looking out for her fellow Californians. Swalwell was seen as focused on ingratiating himself with Pelosi, according to several former staffers, who asked him to re-nominate her as speaker after the 2014 midterms and gave him a slot on the steering committee that controls committee assignments and internal party decisions.
“He benefited from being one of Pelosi’s pets for a long time,” said a senior Democratic staffer for another office, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal party dynamics.
In 2015, Swalwell got a much sought-after seat on the House Intelligence Committee. And in 2016, after Trump won the presidential election, Swalwell stepped into a role that would lead to continual cable news hits and more fundraising dollars: Trump antagonist.
“He became one of the Democrats’ favorite talking heads,” said one of Swalwell’s former staffers, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss their former boss candidly. “And he was in green rooms and hobnobbing with famous people.”
Swalwell dove headfirst into the Russia investigation, pushing for an independent commission to investigate alleged attempts to influence the 2016 election.
His fame grew to the point that Swalwell decided to run for president alongside more than a dozen other Democrats seeking the 2020 nomination.
In 2021, Pelosi tapped Swalwell as an impeachment manager to help prosecute the House’s case against Trump, cementing his status as a sought-after cable news guest and hero to liberals who hoped Trump would be convicted.
“He got less involved in legislating and more interested in himself,” the former staffer said.
Swalwell hired his campaign fundraiser, who had no experience working on Capitol Hill, to be his chief of staff around the same time. Some in his orbit interpreted that as as signal that the congressman had abandoned the desire to use his office to do serious legislation, instead focusing purely on politics.
But if there was a shift in emphasis, it did not hurt Swalwell’s political standing.
“If you were someone who did that performance art of always being a fighter and you’re good on TV, you could go as far as you want,” said Doug Heye, a Republican strategist.
‘We should have learned’
Swalwell jumped into the California governor’s race last November and quickly established himself as a front-runner. Former aides to outgoing Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) formed a super PAC for him, several unions endorsed him, and Sen. Adam Schiff (D-California) backed him as well.
The crowded Democratic field was struggling, sparking fears that Republicans could end up as the top two candidates of the June primary — a disaster for Democrats in the deep blue state. Former Rep. Katie Porter was criticized after videos showed her speaking sharply to a staffer and a reporter, and billionaire Tom Steyer had struggled to line up institutional support.
“A lot of these powerbrokers don’t trust Porter or Steyer,” said Michael Trujillo, a Democratic strategist who created a super PAC for another gubernatorial candidate, Antonio Villaraigosa, a former mayor of Los Angeles. “Eric Swalwell became their vehicle.”
But behind the scenes, Swalwell’s team was working to tamp down allegations that threatened his campaign. Shortly after he joined the race, his team sent a cease-and-desist letter to Trujillo, who had accused Swalwell on social media of sexually harassing staffers and warned politicians not to endorse him.
Trujillo deleted the post. But Cheyenne Hunt and another Democratic influencer, Arielle Fodor, who goes by “Mrs. Frazzled,” began hearing from women who said they had had negative experiences with Swalwell around the same time that his momentum in the race was increasing.
Hunt’s friend Annika Albrecht contacted her to say that Swalwell had invited her to his hotel room when she was a college student in 2019 and that she considered him a mentor. She declined, but the experience negatively affected how she saw her future career at the time, she said.
Albrecht asked Hunt to post about it without naming her. Fodor said she was bombarded with negative stories about Swalwell when she posted on Instagram that she was impressed by how authentic he seemed after a brief interaction in November. Fodor reached out to Hunt. who looped in Albrecht, and the three began coordinating.
Their efforts helped lead to the news stories in the Chronicle and on CNN, they said.
“I ended up working with a bunch of these women and … building trust with them and pulling together some pro bono legal resources and ultimately connecting them with press,” Hunt said. It was “three scrappy little women,” behind the operation, Albrecht said.
When the allegations against Swalwell were reported late last week, politicians who have known Swalwell for years said they had had no idea.
“The man lived a double life,” said Gallego, the Arizona senator who was one of Swalwell’s closest friends. “He literally led a double life and tricked many of us into thinking he was someone he was not.”
These lawmakers have also pushed back against accusations that Swalwell’s alleged misconduct was widely known.
“It is absolutely not true,” Pelosi said in an interview at a forum at George Washington University on Monday. She said she knew nothing of the allegations against Swalwell before they broke last week, and called his resignation a “smart decision.”
Rep. Ro Khanna, a Democrat who represents Silicon Valley and has endorsed Steyer in the gubernatorial race, said he had heard rumors that Swalwell had extramarital affairs but nothing more.
“I do think it is a blow to the establishment back room politics of the California machine,” Khanna said. “But I don’t think even the establishment knew of the sickness and ugliness of Swalwell’s behavior.”
Lisa Bloom, an attorney for the woman who on Tuesday accused Swalwell of rape and who has represented many women in sexual harassment and assault cases, said it’s not unusual for alleged perpetrators to escape notice from those around them.
“It is very common when someone is multiply accused of sexual misconduct that people around them don’t know,” she said.
But the influencers who helped bring the allegations to light hope that the Democratic Party will hold itself to a high standard.
“We are supposed to be the party of not tolerating this stuff,” Fodor said. “This is a post-Epstein world and a post #MeToo world so you’d think we should have learned.”
The post How Eric Swalwell rose to the top of Democratic politics as rumors followed him appeared first on Washington Post.
