WASHINGTON- The sexual assault allegations that derailed Rep. Eric Swalwell's bid for California governor now threaten to end his congressional career, as lawmakers from both parties say they would support a vote to expel him from the House.
Swalwell dropped out of California's gubernatorial primary Sunday night after allegations of sexual assault and misconduct by a former staffer and other women doomed his campaign to failure and alienated his closest allies. Swalwell, who has denied the allegations, has not said whether he intends to resign his House seat.
But the allegations, detailed in reports by the San Francisco Chronicle and CNN, have drawn swift bipartisan condemnation, with lawmakers calling them “disgusting” and demanding that Congress hold him accountable and remove him from office.
Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) is leading the effort to oust Swalwell. In an interview Monday, Luna said he plans to file a motion Tuesday arguing that he violated House rules over an alleged inappropriate sexual relationship with a subordinate. A vote could be forced as early as Wednesday, he said.
Democrats have called on Swalwell to resign, but when it comes to expulsion, they won't be acting against Swalwell alone. They are also pushing to oust Rep. Tony Gonzalez (R-Texas), who last month admitted to having a sexual relationship with a staffer who later committed suicide. Luna believes there is enough support to achieve both.
“I think we absolutely have the votes to oust both of them,” Luna said in an interview Monday morning. “If we don't hold our own parties accountable, it reflects poorly on us as a whole.”
Rep. Teresa Leger Fernandez, Democrat of New Mexico, said she will support the motion to expel Swalwell and will introduce the motion to expel Gonzalez.
“As I have said, González and Swalwell are unfit to serve in Congress given their sexual transgressions against the women who work for them,” Fernández wrote in X on Sunday. “They should resign or be expelled.”
If successful, the expulsions would be the first in congressional history based on sexual misconduct, and one of the rare cases in the House's 237-year history in which members have expelled their own.
Only six members have been expelled from the House. Three of them fought for the Confederacy, two were convicted of bribery, and one was fraudster George Santos, whose sentence was later commuted by President Trump.
Meredith McGehee, a longtime ethics expert, said members have been reluctant to expel their colleagues in recent years because of slim majorities in the House, but that failure to do so damages the institution's credibility.
“It is really important right now that the House acts to oust these men who have been seriously and credibly accused of wrongdoing,” said McGehee, former executive director of the ethics watchdog Issue One. “Allowing any of them to remain in office and serve out their term would be a travesty.”
The Swalwell scandal could lead to a growing increase in calls for his expulsion. Some lawmakers are calling for two additional members to be dragged into any expulsion vote: Rep. Cory Mills (R-Fla.), who has been accused of sexual assault, and Rep. Sheila Cherfilous-McCormick (D-Fla.), who was accused of laundering $5 million in federal disaster money and using it to finance a political campaign.
“Representatives Swalwell, Gonzales, Cherfilus-McCormick and Mills should resign. If they refuse, they should be expelled,” wrote Rep. Nydia Velázquez (D-N.Y.) on Monday. “Americans deserve better and Congress must hold our members accountable.”
Any expulsion would require a two-thirds majority vote, or 290 of 435 votes if all members of the House participate.
It remains to be seen whether that threshold can be reached.
Meanwhile, the House Ethics Committee said Monday it opened an investigation into allegations of misconduct against Swalwell.
In a statement, the Republican-led committee said it will investigate whether Swalwell “violated the Code of Official Conduct or any applicable law, rule, regulation or other standard of conduct in the performance of his duties or the performance of his responsibilities, with respect to allegations that he may have engaged in sexual misconduct, including toward an employee working under his supervision.”
The committee's statement added that “the mere fact that it is investigating these allegations and publicly disclosing its review does not in itself indicate that any violation has occurred.”
