Eric Swalwell, a Democratic congressman from the San Francisco Bay Area, said in a social media post on Sunday evening that he is suspending his campaign for California governor in the wake of allegations that he sexually assaulted a former staff member and engaged in sexual misconduct with other women.
The accusations, published Friday in articles by The San Francisco Chronicle and CNN, prompted rescinded endorsements, a criminal investigation and, now, his withdrawal from the race. Mr. Swalwell has repeatedly denied the accusations and continued to do so Sunday evening.
“To my family, staff, friends, and supporters, I am deeply sorry for mistakes in judgment I’ve made in my past,” Mr. Swalwell said in a post on X. “I will fight the serious, false allegations that have been made — but that’s my fight, not a campaign’s.”
The post did not mention his role in the House.
Mr. Swalwell, who beat an 80-year-old incumbent for his seat in 2012 and briefly ran for president in 2019, had benefited from higher name recognition than many of his competitors, but the field was — and still is — wide open.
A former prosecutor and local politician in the East Bay suburb of Dublin, Calif., Mr. Swalwell, 45, had in recent years raised his profile as a frequent and vocal critic of President Trump, becoming a fixture on cable news.
On Saturday, one day after the news investigations published, the Manhattan district attorney’s office said it was investigating Mr. Swalwell. According to The Chronicle and CNN, a former staffer of Mr. Swalwell’s alleged that he sexually assaulted her in a New York hotel.
Several Democratic officials — and more than 50 of his former staff members — had called for him to step aside. Representative Nancy Pelosi, the former House Speaker whose word carries perhaps the most weight of any Democratic leader in California politics, said in a statement on Friday afternoon that she had spoken with Mr. Swalwell and told him that the “extremely sensitive matter” should be investigated thoroughly.
“It is clear that is best done outside of a gubernatorial campaign,” she said.
Ms. Pelosi, who has said she will retire at the end of the year, has not backed a candidate.
Later on Friday, House Democratic leaders issued a joint statement calling on Mr. Swalwell to drop out. None of them said he should resign from Congress, though other candidates for governor did, and a Republican congresswoman, Anna Paulina Luna of Florida, said she would file a motion to expel him from the House.
When Mr. Swalwell jumped into the crowded race to succeed Gov. Gavin Newsom, he amassed support from other elected officials, including Senator Adam Schiff, as well as some of the state’s biggest unions. The endorsements helped propel him to a leading spot in polls — albeit by a thin margin — among the many Democratic candidates leading up to the primary on June 2.
But a few days before the news reports containing the allegations, online rumors swirled that Mr. Swalwell had behaved inappropriately toward staff members after two liberal influencers posted that they had been told about sexual misconduct by him. On Tuesday, he forcefully denied ever having had inappropriate relationships with staffers.
Then, on Friday, The Chronicle published the account of the former staff member, who accused Mr. Swalwell of sexually assaulting her on multiple occasions, including while she was too intoxicated to consent. Just hours later, CNN published a report in which four women, including one who appeared to be the same former staffer, described sexual misconduct by Mr. Swalwell. The New York Times has not confirmed the sexual assault accusations.
Ally Sammarco, who was named in the CNN report, spoke to The Times and said Mr. Swalwell had sent her inappropriate messages on Snapchat in 2021, including unsolicited nude images.
About three months after Ms. Sammarco’s text exchanges with Mr. Swalwell began, his wife gave birth to their third child. While he was posting photos of the baby on public social media platforms, he was allegedly writing to Ms. Sammarco in private. “He would send me messages like, ‘When am I going to see you?’” she said.
Mr. Swalwell immediately denied the allegations. Later on Friday, he again insisted the sexual assault allegations were false in a video statement, though he also apologized to his wife.
“I do not suggest to you in any way that I’m perfect or that I’m a saint,” he said. “I have certainly made mistakes in judgment in my past, but those mistakes are between me and my wife and to her, I apologize deeply for putting her in this position.”
The California Teachers Association, one of the state’s most powerful unions, the state’s Service Employees International Union and the California Professional Firefighters were among the groups that rescinded support. Mr. Schiff withdrew his endorsement and called on Mr. Swalwell to drop out, and his campaign managers had stepped down.
The California Democratic Party’s longtime chairman, Rusty Hicks, said in a statement that the allegations were “deeply disturbing.” He added: Victims and survivors “should be heard and believed. Period.” But Mr. Hicks didn’t specifically call on Mr. Swalwell to drop out of the race.
Rather, he said that “all — repeat, all” candidates for governor should assess the viability of their campaigns.
Mr. Hicks’s statement was an acknowledgment of the looming possibility, although still unlikely, that two Republicans could advance to the general election for governor of the nation’s most populous and most reliably Democratic state.
The state’s open primary system advances the top two candidates, regardless of party, and the race’s two most prominent Republicans have been polling near the top of list. Meanwhile, the best-known Democrats in the race have struggled to gain traction.
Laurel Rosenhall Emily Cochrane, Madison Malone Kircher, Chris Hippensteel, Christina Morales and Orlando Mayorquín contributed reporting.
Jill Cowan is a Times reporter based in Los Angeles, covering the forces shaping life in Southern California and throughout the state.
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