The California Governor's Race and the Eric Swalwell Accusations

WSJ Opinion: Potomac Watch

The Wall Street Journal

News, Society & Culture

4.2 • 2.8K Ratings

🗓️ 17 April 2026

⏱️ 26 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Eric Swalwell quits the campaign and Congress after several women allege sexual misconduct going back years. While other Democrats deny that they knew about this behavior, why didn't they take the rumors more seriously? Plus, is there a chance that California's jungle primary could nominate two Republicans? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:28.3	among real estate professionals. From the opinion pages of the Wall Street Journal, this is Potomac Watch.
0:40.2	The campaign for California governor gets shaken up by the sudden withdrawal and resignation of Congressman Eric Swalwell,
0:45.8	after several women accuse him of sexual misconduct going back years. And as Swalwell's
0:51.2	former Democratic colleagues deny that they knew about his behavior.
0:55.6	Welcome, I'm Kyle Peterson with the Wall Street Journal.
0:58.8	We're joined today by my colleagues on the journal's opinion pages,
1:02.7	columnists Kim Strassel and Alicia Finley.
1:06.3	As recently as a week ago, Eric Swalwell was a reasonable bet to be California's next governor.
1:12.7	A resistance progressive polls had him near the top of the state's crowded jungle primary in June,
1:19.6	in the running to be one of those top two finishers who will move on to the November election.
1:25.0	But then reports began to emerge about misconduct toward women from sending
1:29.3	unsolicited nude photographs all the way to assault. Here's a piece of a press conference Tuesday by
1:35.1	one of the accusers named Lana Drews. One part of what she says happened in 2018.
1:42.6	I only had one glass of wine.
1:51.7	He, we were supposed to go to a political event, and he said he needed to get paperwork
1:57.3	from his hotel room.
	...

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