Why Did the Democrats Really Dump Eric Swalwell?

Democrat Congressman Eric Swalwell of California resigned in disgrace this week after serving in the U.S. House of Representatives for 13 years. His departure came in the wake of multiple sexual misconduct and abuse scandals while he was campaigning to be the next Governor of California. He has since dropped out of that race as well and denies some of allegations against him, notably the most damning one – sexually assaulting a staffer.

The go-to word for Democrats to defend their crimes is “mistake.” No wonder then that Swalwell used it in a quasi-confessional video posted to his X page on April 11, days ahead of his resignation from Congress.

In response to the allegations against Swalwell, prominent Democrat leadership including Nancy Pelosi called on Swalwell to drop out of the Governor’s race.

Political commentator Tara Reade, who accused Joe Biden of sexually assaulting her in 1993 when she was his staffer, expressed her support for the Swalwell’s alleged rape victim. In an X post, Reade expressed her rhetorical surprise that Democrats would not defend Swalwell when they defended Biden in her case, denying her justice.

Reade’s comment pointed to the unusual observation of Democrats not coming to the political rescue of one of their longtime team members when Democrats by and large are known to act politically, quite often at the expense of morality. Why this anomaly? Columnist Eddie Scarry has an explanation, published in The Federalist (April 14). His analysis captures the calculative political mind of the Democratic Party in the next gubernatorial race of which Swalwell was a part.

By Scarry’s analysis, Swalwell had become an obstacle in the race for the Governor’s office since a number of other Democrats are also running and the Democrat leadership knows that a divided vote on the left would favor the Republican candidate in the race. With Swalwell’s scandals popping up all of a sudden when his campaign was about to go mainstream, he became the most eligible candidate to be dumped. It’s one less divider of the blue vote and Democrats can also pretend to hold a moral high ground by shunning an alleged women abuser. As Scarry put it:

Democrats aren’t holding Swalwell accountable. They’re removing an obstacle that potentially threatens their power in California.

Scarry’s analysis fits the observation that the Democrats did not ask Swalwell to resign from Congress in the wake of these allegations but only to drop his gubernatorial bid. It was Republican Congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna of Florida who called for censure and other appropriate actions against Swalwell in the House.

Republican Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri, when asked on Fox News about Democrats turning on Swalwell, said that Swalwell absolutely became the political target of the Democrats because he had become a liability and even though the Democrats knew of his scandals in 2020, they looked the other way. Hawley also shared that he was introducing legislation to deny pension to every Congress member convicted of sexual abuse.