Democrats’ Jungle Primary Boomerang Hits Swalwell Hard | Victor Davis Hanson

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4.8 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 13 April 2026

⏱️ 10 minutes

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Summary

The Democrat Party, which brags that it doesn’t let democracy die in darkness, has a bad habit of culling candidates it feels are politically antithetical to its agenda. Take Eric Swalwell, for example. Swalwell joined an already crowded field for California governor in November 2025. He threatened to break up the Democrat field, as there are more viable Democrat candidates than Republicans. Make no mistake: Had Swalwell been enjoying a healthy lead in the polls going into last Friday, he’d still be running for governor, and these allegations would’ve never seen the light of day. Like Joe Biden’s failed reelection bid in 2024, the Democrat establishment made the strategic decision to no longer cloak Swalwell’s sex harassment allegations and instead threw its weight behind a more viable candidate. “But my point is, if Eric Swalwell had been way ahead in the gubernatorial race, I don’t think that any of this would’ve surfaced. It would’ve been analogous to Joe Biden. He would’ve been a useful vessel, and he would’ve won the governorship, and the Republicans wouldn’t have had a chance.” (00:00) California Jungle Primary (00:47) Who Is Eric Swalwell (03:00) Swalwell Scandal Allegations (04:31) Why It Surfaced Now (07:32) Democrats and Backroom Politics 👉 The Daily Signal cannot continue to tell stories, like this one, without the support of our viewers: http://dailysignal.com/donate 👉Don’t miss out on Victor’s latest short videos by subscribing to The Daily Signal today. You’ll be notified every time a new piece of content drops: ⁠https://www.youtube.com/dailysignal?sub_confirmation=1⁠ Also on Spotify: https://megaphone.link/THEDAILYSIGNAL9753340027 👉Want more VDH? Watch Victor’s weekly, hour-long podcast, “Victor Davis Hanson: In His Own Words,” now! Subscribe to his YouTube channel, and enable notifications: https://www.youtube.com/@victordavishanson7273?sub_confirmation=1👉More exclusive content is available on Victor’s website: https://victorhanson.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, this is Victor Davis Hansen for the Daily Signal.
0:13.0	Here in California, we're having a primary coming up in June since 2010 ballot initiative.
0:20.0	We have jungle, so-called jungle primaries, where the top two
0:24.1	vote getters, regardless of their party, will face off in the November election.
0:29.6	Because we have an overwhelming Democratic registration, a majority, the Democrats pushed this
0:36.7	2010 ballot initiative with the idea that you would only
0:40.9	have Democrats in the general election.
0:44.3	And that's happened.
0:45.7	And that happened with Eric Swalwell.
0:47.7	So I'm going to talk a little bit about Eric Swalwell.
0:49.9	He's been a six-term congressman from Northern California.
0:54.1	I grew up in Dublin.
0:55.9	He's a lawyer.
0:57.1	He was in the first jungle primary, and he defeated the incumbent Representative Stark, I think his name was.
1:03.9	And he's been there for almost well over six terms now.
1:09.9	Who is he?
1:10.6	He was very controversial.
1:12.2	He's sort of rambunctious.
1:14.6	He cuts these commercials about himself as an athlete.
1:18.3	He was very vocal in Russian collusion,
1:20.4	and he pounded that day after day that Donald Trump was a puppet of Vladimir Putin.
1:26.1	He was on the House Intelligence Committee. He was a bitter foe of the chairman, Devin Nunes.
	...

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