The 2026 California gubernatorial race has been thrown into sudden turmoil as leading Democratic candidate and sitting U.S. Representative Eric Swalwell is confronting multiple explosive sexual misconduct allegations from former female staffers, claims he has forcefully denied as false, politically timed attacks.
The first public accusation surfaced Friday in reporting from *The San Francisco Chronicle*, coming from an anonymous former employee who worked in Swalwell’s Castro Valley district office. The woman told the outlet that inappropriate behavior began almost immediately after she was hired, with Swalwell making unwanted sexual comments, soliciting sexual encounters, and sending unsolicited sexual messages. The most serious allegation dates back to September 2019, when she says she woke up naked in Swalwell’s hotel room with only fragmented memory of the previous night. Five years later, after she had left Swalwell’s staff, the woman reported a second incident at a gala where she recalled pushing Swalwell away after he advanced on her, and woke up the next morning with physical signs of sexual trauma. Her account has been corroborated by contemporaneous text messages she shared with friends at the time of the alleged incident, as well as testimony from her former boyfriend, who told the Chronicle he encouraged her to file a police report.
Hours after the Chronicle’s initial report, CNN published additional accusations from four more former female staffers, all alleging varying degrees of sexual misconduct from Swalwell. The outlet also confirmed that Swalwell’s legal team had sent cease-and-desist letters to two of the accusers just one day before the first allegations became public.
In an official statement released Friday, Swalwell pushed back hard against all claims, framing the allegations as a last-minute smear campaign timed to derail his campaign just months ahead of the state’s Democratic primary. “These allegations are false and come on the eve of an election against the front-runner for governor,” he wrote. The congressman, who has built a 20-year public service career as a prosecutor and federal legislator, emphasized his long record of advocating for and protecting women, adding that he would “defend myself with the facts and where necessary bring legal action.” He also noted that his immediate focus would be on supporting his wife and children while pushing back against what he called lies targeting his years of public service.
The accusations have prompted immediate calls from top California Democratic figures for Swalwell to suspend his gubernatorial campaign. House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries was among the first high-profile party members to urge Swalwell to step aside, and he was quickly joined by other prominent state Democrats including Senator Adam Schiff and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. In her public statement, Pelosi argued that “this extremely sensitive matter must be appropriately investigated with full transparency and accountability. As I discussed with Congressman Swalwell, it is clear that is best done outside of a gubernatorial campaign.”
California’s Democratic primary is scheduled for June 2, where party voters will select their nominee for the November general election. Given California’s heavy Democratic lean, the winner of the primary is widely expected to secure the governorship in the fall general election. As of now, Swalwell remains in the race, but the growing pressure from within his own party has thrown his campaign’s future into question ahead of the critical primary vote.