Morning Digest: Eric Swalwell drops bid for governor after women accuse him of sexual assault

Members of Congress have called on him to resign—or be expelled

California Rep. Eric Swalwell (D) (Eric Swalwell Facebook)

Leading Off

CA-Gov

Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell ended his bid for governor on Sunday evening after multiple women, including a former staffer, accused him of sexual assault in news accounts published on Friday.

“I am suspending my campaign for Governor,” Swalwell wrote in a brief statement on social media. “To my family, staff, friends, and supporters, I am deeply sorry for mistakes in judgment I’ve made in my past.”

“I will fight the serious, false allegations that have been made — but that’s my fight, not a campaign’s,” he added.

Swalwell’s campaign imploded in a matter of hours after the accusations first emerged on Friday afternoon. Almost immediately, his most prominent supporters began withdrawing their endorsements and calling on him to drop out.

Before the weekend was out, every prominent elected official, including many fellow members of Congress, and every labor union that had once backed Swalwell had abandoned him. Aides for both his campaign and congressional office also said they were quitting or would soon do so.

Some members of the House have called on Swalwell to resign and said they would consider expelling him if he does not.

On Friday evening, Swalwell denied the accusations in a video posted on social media.

“These allegations of sexual assault are flat false. They are absolutely false. They did not happen. They have never happened. And I will fight them with everything that I have,” he said.

In the same statement, however, he apologized to his wife, Brittany Watts, for unspecified “mistakes.”

“I have certainly made mistakes in judgment in my past,” he said. “But those mistakes are between me and my wife. And to her, I apologize deeply for putting her in this position.”

The collapse began when the San Francisco Chronicle published accusations from a former congressional aide saying that Swalwell had sexually assaulted her on two separate occasions when she was too inebriated to consent.

Swalwell, she said, began coming on to her shortly after she was hired to work for his congressional office in the San Francisco Bay Area in 2019, when she was 21 years old.

In September of that year, she told the paper, she became intoxicated at a group dinner with Swalwell in the East Bay city of Pleasanton and did not remember the rest of the evening but said she “woke up naked in Swalwell’s hotel bed and could feel the effect of vaginal intercourse.”

A very similar incident, she said, took place after a nonprofit gala in New York City five years later, in which she said Swalwell had sex with her against her wishes while she was “blacked out.”

The woman sent messages to friends about the alleged assaults, which the Chronicle reviewed, but she told the paper she had been reluctant to speak out against the powerful and influential congressman.

“He was the foundation of my career. I had nothing to fall back on or anyone to vouch for my skills outside of my colleagues in that office and Eric himself,” she said. “I knew if I came forward, it would define me and undermine my credibility.”

Soon after the Chronicle published its article, CNN followed with an account featuring further accusations from three other women.

One woman, who connected with Swalwell on social media in 2025, met the congressman for dinner when he visited her city last year. She said Swalwell touched her leg and kissed her without her consent at a bar, at which point she’d grown intoxicated and felt “really fuzzy.”

She then found herself in Swalwell’s hotel room “without any memory of how she got there,” according to CNN, and called her recollection of the night a “blur.”

She told CNN she had “no desire to ever come after [Swalwell] or ever come out saying something,” but ultimately decided to because she said the congressman had “used my vulnerabilities and the fact that I looked up to him to be able to get something from it.”

Two other women told the network that Swalwell had sent them unsolicited photos of his genitals, including one, Democratic strategist Ally Sammarco, who spoke on the record.

The day after the Chronicle and CNN published their stories, the Manhattan district attorney’s office said it was opening an investigation into the congressman.

Swalwell, who first won a safely blue seat in the House by unseating Democratic Rep. Pete Stark in 2012, launched a late bid for California’s open governorship in November and quickly moved to the front of the crowded pack.

An average of all public surveys from the polling aggregator FiftyPlusOne shows Swalwell in second place in June’s top-two primary with 14% of the vote, trailing only Republican Steve Hilton, who is at 18%. All the polls included in that average, though, were conducted before Friday’s news upended the race.

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The progressive landslide in Wisconsin

1Q Fundraising

• CO-Sen: John Hickenlooper (D-inc): $1.4 million raised, $4 million cash on hand

• SC-Gov:

  • Alan Wilson (R): $1 million raised

  • Ralph Norman (R): $300,000 raised, additional $500,000 self-funded, $1.6 million cash on hand

• AZ-01: Jay Feely (R): $742,000 raised

• KY-06: Zach Dembo (D): $275,000 raised, $450,000 cash on hand

• PA-07: Ryan Mackenzie (R-inc): $900,000 raised, $2.5 million cash on hand

• WI-07: Michael Alfonso (R): $600,000 raised

Senate

LA-Sen

Despite Donald Trump’s intervention, Louisiana’s Republican Senate primary remains very much unsettled, with potential outcomes ranging from a black eye for Trump to an elected senator faring worse than any other since World War II.

But the options aren’t limited to those extremes. Still another possibility would see a third-wheel candidate emerge out of the morass on May 16 to overtake the two warring frontrunners.

A newly released poll from BDPC—albeit conducted almost a month ago—underscored just how uncertain the contest is.

Rep. Julie Letlow, who has Trump and Gov. Jeff Landry in her corner, is in the lead with 29%, but that still puts her well short of the majority needed to avert a runoff on June 27. In the battle for the all-important second spot, meanwhile, state Treasurer John Fleming sports a small 24-20 advantage over Sen. Bill Cassidy, who jeopardized his career when he voted to convict Trump after the Jan. 6 riots.

BDPC’s prior poll from February showed Cassidy ahead with 28% as Letlow and Fleming deadlocked for second with 21% apiece. That survey was conducted for Alton Ashy, a well-connected lobbyist who has helped Letlow raise money. There’s no word on whether this new poll was also conducted on behalf of Ashy or another Letlow backer, though the congresswoman’s campaign was the first to publicize the results.

This more recent survey, which was in the field from March 16-17, also paints a slightly worse picture for Cassidy than most other polls have. A new average from the polling aggregator FiftyPlusOne shows Letlow narrowly ahead with 26.3% as Cassidy edges out Fleming 25.7 to 22.2, a showing that would be just enough to get the incumbent into the second round.

That’s only half the battle, however. BDPC shows Cassidy in poor shape in a runoff against either challenger, with Fleming outpacing him 49-26, while Letlow would beat him by a slightly larger 50-24 spread.

Letlow, by contrast, would only narrowly lead Fleming 34-33 in a hypothetical duel, with about a third of voters undecided between these two options.

Cassidy and his allies are, understandably, focused on surviving the first round before worrying about the second. To that end, they’ve already deployed vast financial resources: AdImpact reported last week that Cassidy’s side had spent or reserved more than $15 million on advertising, compared to around $4 million for Letlow and her supporters. Fleming, meanwhile, had spent less than $500,000.

Cassidy’s backers have been airing ads portraying the congresswoman as insufficiently conservative since February, though they recently got some fresh material when Fox News shared footage from 2020 of Letlow, who was then a university administrator, advocating for diversity programs.

“I am a strong and progressive leader,” the audience sees Letlow declare in a new commercial from a pro-Cassidy outfit.

“We need a division of diversity, equity, and inclusion with leadership that goes all the way to the top,” says Letlow, who was interviewing for the presidency of the University of Louisiana Monroe at the time. “I believe the president needs to have diversity on their senior counsel.”

Letlow did not get the post but instead unexpectedly ran for office the following year after her husband, Rep.-elect Luke Letlow, died from COVID before he could be sworn in as the new representative for the 5th Congressional District. Letlow, who had Trump’s support, easily won and quickly established herself as an ardent conservative.

Letlow has highlighted her hardline voting record, as well as Cassidy’s own apostasies, to push back on her critics’ attacks. Her campaign told Fox, “While Letlow was fighting DEI in Congress, Bill Cassidy was working with Joe Biden to pass major federal legislation that funded DEI programs, imposed equity mandates, and embedded gender-identity language into federal policy.”

That response, though, has done little to convince political observers that she’s a sure bet to make it to the runoff, much less win the GOP nomination.

“The Trump endorsement has not had a close-out move,” state Rep. Mike Bayham, who hasn’t backed anyone, told Politico. “Cassidy was ready for her. They defined her before she introduced herself.”

Fleming has been happy to join Cassidy in piling on Letlow in interviews and on social media while positioning himself as the most right-wing candidate in the race. He tweeted Friday, “Washington has just figured out that Fleming is leading in the Louisiana US Senate race before even launching TV ads. Fleming stands alone as the only conservative candidate based on thousands of Congressional votes.”

That’s not the only way Fleming is standing alone. The treasurer lacks the sort of influential endorsements that Letlow has earned, and campaign donors and major outside groups have spent relatively little to help him.

Fleming instead has self-funded almost his entire campaign, though he’s been reluctant to actually part ways with his cash. NOTUS highlighted in July that he had loaned his campaign $2 million during the second quarter of the year while taking back an identical $2 million loan he had previously made.

“Two million dollars is a lot of money to sit into an account that has no return on investment and no interest,” Fleming told the site last summer. The treasurer said his revolving-door loan would continue “every quarter until the election,” and he did indeed keep at it during the final two reporting periods of 2025. (Updated reports covering the first three months of 2026 are due on Wednesday evening.)

But while Fleming is trying to position himself as an alternative for hardliners who don’t trust either Cassidy or Letlow, outside groups have been running ads calling his conservative credentials into question.

All of this comes as observers wonder whether Fleming will deprive Letlow of a spot in the runoff, or if he will instead help Cassidy achieve the kind of historical distinction no one wants.

The University of Minnesota’s Eric Ostermeier wrote in February that the last time an elected U.S. senator failed to earn at least second place in a primary was in 1944, when Arkansas Democrat Hattie Caraway finished fourth.

Cassidy has plenty of money behind him as he tries to avoid becoming the first senator in the 21st century to finish with the bronze, but he’s reportedly frustrated that his erstwhile allies aren’t spending more to keep him in office.

Punchbowl News writes that Cassidy phoned Jennifer DeCasper, the executive director of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, to gripe that the Senate GOP’s campaign arm wasn’t doing more to help him in his time of need.

DeCasper, Punchbowl says, answered with “a response that included profanity” and told Cassidy he wouldn’t be in such dire straits if he hadn’t cast that vote to convict Trump.

SC-Sen

Attorney Paul Dans ended his primary campaign against Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham on Friday, which was the final day for him to remove his name from South Carolina’s June 9 ballot.

Dans, the mastermind of Project 2025, endorsed wealthy businessman Mark Lynch on his way out. Four other Republicans are also opposing Graham for renomination, but Lynch, who loaned his campaign $5 million last year, is the only one who has generated much attention.

But while Lynch has argued that Graham has failed to demonstrate sufficient fealty to Donald Trump, MAGA’s master has a different take. Trump, who endorsed Graham for reelection last year, took to Truth Social on Friday to blast Lynch as “a LUNATIC” who “would be a DISASTER for the Republican Party.”

The eventual GOP nominee will likely face pediatrician Annie Andrews, the Democratic frontrunner. Andrews has raised several million dollars for her uphill campaign in this conservative state.

Governors

ME-Gov

Republican state Sen. James Libby has abandoned his bid for Maine’s open governorship after election officials rejected his application for public matching funds because he failed to obtain a sufficient number of small donations to qualify for the program.

A large number of other Republicans, however, are still seeking to replace term-limited Democratic Gov. Janet Mills. The handful of public polls of the contest have all shown attorney Bobby Charles, a frequent Fox News presence, in the lead, though the race remains unsettled.

Democrats also have a busy primary, with most polls finding former state health director Nirav Shah in front. Both nominations will be decided by ranked-choice voting, though only a plurality will be needed to win the general election.

House

NY-04

Former Valley Stream Mayor John DeGrace has dropped his short-lived—and likely non-existent—bid for New York’s 4th Congressional District, potentially allowing local Republican leaders to tap former Rep. Anthony D’Esposito as a replacement.

They don’t have much time to act: Candidate swaps like these are permitted under New York law, but the GOP must designate an alternative by Tuesday. D’Esposito, who currently serves as inspector general for the Department of Labor, has steadfastly refused to answer questions about whether he intends to challenge Democratic Rep. Laura Gillen, though Newsday reported last month that he’s plotting a comeback bid.

Obituaries

Eliot Engel

Former Rep. Eliot Engel, a New York Democrat who represented part of the Bronx and Westchester County from 1989 until 2021, died Friday at the age of 79.

Engel was secure for most of his tenure representing his safely Democratic constituency, and he rose to become chair of the influential Foreign Affairs Committee during what would be his final term. The congressman, though, lost a closely watched 2020 primary to Jamaal Bowman, who made the case that Engel had lost touch with his constituents.

The New York Times has a detailed look at Engel’s long career in its obituary.

Poll Pile

• FL-Gov (R): The Tarrance Group for Byron Donalds:

  • Byron Donalds: 50, James Fishback: 9, Jay Collins: 6, Paul Renner: 3.

• AL-01 (R): PI Polling for the Alabama Daily News:

  • Jerry Carl: 23, Rhett Marques: 19, others: 8, undecided: 50.