East Bay Rep. Eric Swalwell, who gained notoriety for his viral online needling of President Donald Trump, announced his campaign for California governor Thursday during an interview with the comedian Jimmy Kimmel (opens in new tab).
Swalwell, a former Alameda County District Attorney’s Office prosecutor and Dublin city council member who was elected to Congress in 2012, vowed to be California’s “fighter and protector.”
In his campaign launch video (opens in new tab), (opens in new tab) Swalwell said California’s next governor had two jobs: “One, keep the worst president in our history out of our homes, out of our streets, and out of our lives.” The second, he said, was to “bring us a new California” that makes it easier to afford living in the Golden State.
Swalwell’s announcement was not surprising to those who’ve been tracking the increasingly crowded race to replace termed-out Gov. Gavin Newsom. The field currently includes former Orange County Rep. Katie Porter, former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, former California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, and billionaire climate activist Tom Steyer, who announced his run on Wednesday — among several others.
Rumors have been swirling for weeks that Swalwell, 45, was considering a run, which were only amplified when a gubernatorial fundraising page posted for Swalwell on the Democratic platform ActBlue went live (opens in new tab) before it was quickly deleted on Sunday.
But Swalwell’s foray into the race comes at an optimal time, following the passage of Newsom’s redistricting measure Proposition 50. The Nov. 4 special election sucked up voter attention — and donor money — for the last several months, and many candidates were waiting until after the election to make their decisions.
Though Porter is considered the current frontrunner, the race remains wide open — especially after Kamala Harris decided this summer not to run and Sen. Alex Padilla, who would have been an establishment favorite, also bowed out of consideration.
Keeping tabs on SF’s movers and shakers.
Get the inside scoop on City Hall and local politics in our weekly Power Play newsletter.
Swalwell, who previously attracted praise for his prominent role in both of the president’s impeachments, is hoping to leverage his years of Trump antagonism and online savvy as a way to set him apart from the crowd.
He may get a little help from Trump himself.
Last week, a Trump administration official referred Swalwell to the Justice Department for a mortgage and tax fraud probe — a tactic the president has increasingly used against his perceived political enemies.
Swalwell denied the allegations (opens in new tab), but was quick to capitalize on the claims as evidence that he’s an effective thorn in Trump’s side. In a statement addressing the allegations, Swalwell said he was being punished for being the “most vocal critic of Donald Trump over the last decade.”
Even so, recent polling (opens in new tab) showed Swalwell lagging behind Porter and two Republicans in the race, though the survey of 1,000 voters noted he also has “high name recognition.”
To push ahead of the competition, Democratic consultant Elizabeth Ashford said Swalwell must convince voters he is more than just the anti-Trump candidate.
“Swalwell is known as someone who has been on TV a lot being critical of Donald Trump, and that will only get you so far in this race,” Ashford said. “There’s going to have to be some breakout ideas, and I think that’s something all the candidates right now are kind of struggling to do.”
Unlike deep-pocketed candidates such as Steyer or Stephen Cloobeck, a millionaire Democratic donor who has mounted a long-shot campaign for governor, Swalwell will need major financial assistance to break through the field.
Cloobeck previously told The Standard that he would consider dropping out of the race and handing over his substantial war chest to the Swalwell, whom he’s called a friend, if he was impressed with the congressman’s pitch.
Cloobeck and Swalwell have had at least two meetings in recent weeks. But as of Thursday morning, Cloobeck said he was staying in the race. “I welcome him to the competition until I hear more,” he wrote in a text.