California gubernatorial candidate Eric Swalwell is facing escalating pressure to drop out of the race following an allegation of sexual assault and multiple allegations of sexual misconduct.
The San Francisco Chronicle published on Friday an account of a woman who said she was sexually assaulted by Swalwell on two separate occasions.
The woman said she was a former employee for Swalwell, a sitting congressman who has represented the East Bay area since 2013. The woman, whom the newspaper did not name, said she had sexual encounters with Swalwell while he was her boss, and alleged he sexually assaulted her when she was too intoxicated to consent. The Guardian has not independently confirmed the allegations.
The woman also spoke with CNN, and three other women alleged sexual misconduct by the Democratic congressman in interviews with the news network.
Swalwell forcefully denied the allegations. “For nearly 20 years, I have served the public – as a prosecutor and a congressman and have always protected women,” he said in a statement.” I will defend myself with the facts and where necessary bring legal action. My focus in the coming days is to be with my wife and children and defend our decades of service against these lies.”
Lawyers for Swalwell’s campaign sent two of the women cease-and-desist letters, which called the women’s accounts “false” and ordered them to retract their statements, CNN reported.
Swalwell’s campaign did not respond to questions from the Guardian.
The reports came days after posts had circulated social media, claiming that a groundswell of women would go public with accounts of inappropriate behavior they had experienced from Swalwell.
At a town hall in Sacramento earlier this week, Swalwell disavowed the online discourse as “false” and suggested the posts were timed intentionally to derail his campaign.
Swalwell, whose platform emphasized affordability and the working class, in recent weeks had emerged as a frontrunner in a crowded Democratic race to succeed Gavin Newsom.
On the cable news circuit, he has often been a fierce opponent of Donald Trump. He positioned himself as fighter who could take Trump on if he were governor.
News of the allegations reverberated through the campaign on Friday.
Three campaign employees, including former adviser Courtni Pugh, confirmed to Politico that they had exited Swalwell’s campaign.
“As we continue to learn more, these allegations from multiple sources are deeply troubling and must be taken seriously,” Newsom said on Friday.
California senator Adam Schiff, one of the most prominent members of Congress to back Swalwell, said he was rescinding his endorsement immediately, and called on him to withdraw from the race.
Arizona senator Ruben Gallego, a personal friend of Swalwell, who had days ago defended the congressman against the allegations swirling online, also pulled his endorsement.
“What is described is indefensible. Women who come forward with accounts like this deserve to be heard with respect, not questioned or dismissed,” Gallego said in a statement. Gallego added that he regretted having come to Swalwell’s defense “prior to knowing all the information”.
In a statement, former speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi said “this extremely sensitive matter must be appropriately investigated with full transparency and accountability”. She continued, “as I discussed with Congressman Swalwell, it is clear that is best done outside of a gubernatorial campaign”.
Swalwell’s Democratic rivals in the race called on him to halt his campaign.
“Eric Swalwell’s attempt to silence victims to save his campaign for governor – a campaign he was unfit to enter given these allegations – is a shameful disgrace to our democracy,” Antonio Villaraigosa, former speaker of the California state assembly, said in a statement.
Former congresswoman Katie Porter expressed solidarity with the women who came forward. “We believe you and we stand with you,” she wrote on X.
Steve Hilton, a Republican in the gubernatorial race, suggested on X that Swalwell’s alleged misconduct was an indictment of the state’s Democratic party.
“For all their endless lectures about gender equality and their ‘values’ it’s obvious that today’s California Democratic Party doesn’t care about anything except its own power,” wrote Hilton, who was endorsed recently by Trump.