California’s Gubernatorial Primary: How the Top Candidate Resigned in Disgrace

California Rep. Eric Swalwell speaks during Jewish California Governor 2026 Candidate Forum at Skirball Cultural Center on Thursday, Feb. 26, in Los Angeles. (Ronaldo Bolanos/Los Angeles Times/TNS)

California’s gubernatorial primary started on Monday, May 4, and the last day to vote is June 2. The race has a lot of big names associated with it, including Congresswoman Katie Porter; Tom Steyer, a climate activist and former presidential candidate; and Xavier Becerra, who served as U.S. secretary of health and human services under President Joe Biden.

This race took a turn on April 10, when CNN reported that then-Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell, a gubernatorial candidate, was accused of sexual misconduct by four former employees and is undergoing an investigation for rape of a former employee in New York. This report was started by San Francisco Chronicle reporters Alexei Koseff and Sophia Bollag, as well as social media influencer Arielle Fodor (Mrs. Frazzled), who previously endorsed Swalwell and interviewed him on her social media accounts.

California’s elections typically receive a lot of attention for a number of reasons: The state is known for setting national policy trends, and their top-two primary system is often pointed to as a potential model for reform in other states. The state is known for being a media circus, and this election in particular highlights controversial scandals that have just recently come to light. 

Looking at how Democrats treated the Swalwell controversy, it presents itself as a case study in how they treat power and abuse within their party. When these allegations came out, so did calls for his resignation. Whether it be from the progressive members of the party or its leadership, there was no faith in Swalwell’s leadership.

California is one of only five states to have at least some or all elections follow the top-two primary system. The two candidates who receive the most votes will move on to the general election and can be from the same party; they do not need to be one Democratic candidate and one Republican candidate.

Due to the number of Democrats in the race, there is a risk of infighting and then having to endorse one candidate in the end. With the Swalwell controversy, it increases the risk of attacks, and some candidates could be labeled as “pro-Swalwell” if they did not call for his resignation.

“I think a lot of people are worried that they’re gonna go at each other’s throats, right?” Scott Braam, a professor of political science and urban studies at Elmhurst University, told the Leader. “If it is a Republican versus a Democrat, the Democrat might be so fractured, they can’t get enough votes to get them in. So then the Republican wins, and can you imagine the Republican win it in California?”

On April 14, four days after the allegations came out, Swalwell resigned along with Rep. Tony Gonzales, a Republican congressman from Texas. Gonzalez is also accused of sexual misconduct by a former campaign staffer, his affair resulting in his accuser dying by suicide and other victims coming forward.

In today’s world, younger people are getting the majority of their news from social media. Even with the Swalwell controversy, there was a large social media presence, with Fodor being the one of the first to report it to her audience.

Thomas Salek, a professor of communication at EU, said, “One thing that social media and the modern media atmosphere has done is that with that particular controversy is that it’s allowed public outrage about these allegations to just shift from kind of simmering or smoldering to something that is much more intense and the reaction is, you know, right there, in terms of people’s outrage.” 

Salek expanded, “I think when it comes to allegations of misconduct, like in the case of Swalwell’s career, it’s in line with the broader reaction to ‘Me Too’ cases, and that once you see one person or two people bringing up allegations of misconduct, others come out and say, yeah, I’ve seen similar things, or that happened to me too.” 

Braam said the timing of allegations during an election cycle can affect candidates as well.

“I think maybe people, the victims, the victims were thinking he was going to win. They didn’t want him to become governor,” said Braam. “It’s a timing issue, with the governorship coming up. When it comes time for primaries it is the most likely time for these allegations to come out due to the newfound fame of the candidates and the prospect of them being elected.”

The media has a large role in these primaries, and when these allegations come out during primaries, they can make or break candidates’ chances.

According to Salek, “I think that there was so much pressure from all of these news stories, that it was inevitable that there was going to be an ethics case from the House, that would probably uncover what these allegations were saying. I think the fact that there was so much media coverage about these allegations against him, there was so much pressure being put on him to resign because of the upcoming primary that he couldn’t escape it.”

While Swalwell is no longer in the primaries, there are a lot of promising candidates who are still running to replace Gov. Gavin Newsom. Newsom is not a part of these primaries because he is term-limited, and has not made an official endorsement just yet. With the elections ending in June, we still have a long way until we see who will run the fourth-largest GDP in the world.