Bay Area Congressman Eric Swalwell Joins California Governor's Race

DUBLIN, CA — Eric Swalwell, a Democrat representing a large swath of the East Bay in the U.S. House of Representatives, announced that he will join the 2026 race for California governor.

Swalwell highlighted his desire to help Californians prosper as he announced his candidacy on ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” on Thursday night.

“Our state, this great state, needs a fighter and a protector,” Swalwell said. “Someone who will bring prices down, lift wages up.”

“Our state is under attack,” Swalwell said in a statement on his campaign website. Trump “has militarized our streets, canceled cancer research, zeroed out clean energy climate projects, and is chasing our immigrant friends and neighbors through their workplaces, kids’ schools, and houses of worship.”

Swalwell, a former prosecutor and member of the Dublin City Council who has served in the House of Representatives for seven terms since 2012, joins a crowded and growing field of candidates hoping to replace Gov. Gavin Newsom, who is coming to the end of his term limit.

Other high-profile Democratic candidates include Tom Steyer, a billionaire populist and environmentalist who ran for president in 2020; Katie Porter, a former congresswoman from Orange County who ran for the Senate in 2024; Xavier Becerra, the former Secretary of Health and Human Services under Biden; and Betty Yee, a former state controller.

Top Republican candidates include Stephen Hilton, a former Fox News host, and Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco.

No clear frontrunner has emerged, according to recent polls.

Swalwell, 45, grew up in Dublin, and he graduated from Dublin High School. After graduating from law school, he served as a deputy district attorney for Alameda County. He became active in Dublin local government, and served on the Dublin City Council from 2010 to 2013, when he was elected to the former 15th congressional district.

During Pres. Trump’s first term, Swalwell was a member of the House Intelligence Committee, where he gained a national reputation as a pugnacious Trump critic. Swalwell also served as a House manager in President Donald Trump’s 2021 impeachment trial. He remained active on X, and claimed he received several graphic death threats as a result of his unabashed views. One man pleaded guilty to threatening to decapitate him.

He ran for president in 2020, though the candidacy did not last long.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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