Inside the Capitol Hill pressure campaign to push out Eric Swalwell and Tony Gonzales

The political repercussions for former Reps. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., and Tony Gonzales, R-Texas, were finally coming for them. In the end, they both decided to get ahead of the consequences and step aside.

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As Swalwell and Gonzales shed support on Capitol Hill and faced increasingly serious threats of expulsion, the pair independently announced Monday that they’d each resign from Congress, a one-two punch that rocked Washington and reverberated in California and Texas.

It was a remarkable and rare example of accountability on Capitol Hill — where scandals have become second-nature, a slow-moving Ethics Committee rarely completes investigations, and a razor-thin majority has led members to believe they’re “untouchable.”

But on Tuesday, the House adjourned with two fewer members than when the day started. Swalwell, accused of sexual assault by a former staffer, and Gonzales, who admitted to an affair with a former staffer who later died by suicide, officially resigned from Congress, ducking what likely would have been unceremonious expulsions from Congress and shielding their colleagues from such a vote.

“It’s the right thing to do,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., said of Gonzales and Swalwell’s departures. “Washington should be a place where we are elevating and acting with integrity, and I think it’s what the American people expect. These are positions of profound privilege and profound responsibility.”

There could be more expulsions next week. The House Ethics Committee on Tuesday will recommend sanctions for Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, D-Fla., who was indicted for allegedly stealing $5 million in FEMA funds and using that money for her 2021 congressional campaign. Last month, an Ethics subcommittee found her guilty of more than 20 violations, and lawmakers in both parties say they’ll vote to expel her if she doesn’t resign.

Rep. Cory Mills, R-Fla., meanwhile, is facing bipartisan calls to resign or be expelled amid allegations of sexual misconduct, campaign finance and disclosure improprieties, and claims that he’s benefited from federal contracts while in office.

“Time to clean House,” Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., wrote on X, referring to Swalwell, Gonzales, Cherfilus-McCormick and Mills.

The American people deserve a Congress worthy of their trust,” she added in another post. “The House needs to be cleaned out, and it starts with these four.”

‘Get out of Congress’

The avalanche of resignations began with Swalwell, whose decision came to fruition after he lost virtually all of his political allies.

On Friday, the San Francisco Chronicle reported that a former staffer was accusing the California Democrat of sexual assault. Shortly after, CNN reported on the same allegations and accusations from three other women of sexual misconduct.

A former staffer for Swalwell confirmed to MS NOW that she made the allegations to the San Francisco Chronicle and CNN. MS NOW reviewed text messages and medical records pertaining to the claims.

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Right out of the gate, Swalwell started losing support: Congressional backers for his gubernatorial bid yanked their endorsements, key campaign staff quit, and at least one top donor backed out.

But it was calls from two key allies that may have stung him the most.

Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., who maintained a close relationship with Swalwell and remains a towering figure among California Democrats, called him quickly after the allegations broke, a source familiar with the matter told MS NOW. Pelosi told Swalwell the allegations were best dealt with outside of a campaign for governor, the senior Democrat wrote in a statement.

But the source also said Pelosi told Swalwell she believed he should resign.

During an event at The George Washington University Monday night, Pelosi said it was a “good decision” for Swalwell to resign, but she denied telling him to do so.

“Oh, I think that was his decision,” she said. “I think it’s a smart decision.”

And Democratic Sen. Ruben Gallego of Arizona, a close friend of Swalwell, told MS NOW’s Ali Vitali on Tuesday that he immediately called Swalwell after the allegations broke to advise him to drop out of the California governor’s race.

“Get out of this, get out of the governor’s race, get out of Congress,” Gallego said, describing his call to Swalwell after he read about the allegations. “It was just like, entirely get out.”

“This man led a double life,” he added. “He lied to us, he lied to his family, lied to his constituents, to the most powerful people in this country.”

A different tone, meanwhile, came from the top of the House Democratic Caucus. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., Minority Whip Katherine Clark, D-Mass., and Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar, D-Calif., put out a joint statement Friday evening calling on Swalwell to “immediately end his campaign to be California’s next governor,” without, notably, mentioning what to do about his tenure in Congress.

Asked on Tuesday if he pushed Swalwell to resign, Jeffries told reporters: “Member conversations that I’ve had will remain private.”

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Exactly one hour and five minutes after Swalwell announced his resignation on X, Gonzales followed suit, writing that he also would soon leave Congress. The news came as it became clear Gonzales would be unable to escape the pressure on Capitol Hill.

While lawmakers in both parties lauded Swalwell’s decision to resign, it wasn’t enough — they still wanted Gonzales to face accountability. Members lumped the two together, a function of both their alleged misconduct toward younger staffers, and also a reflection of the narrowly divided House and bitter political atmosphere.

If both Swalwell and Gonzales left Congress, lawmakers noted, the balance of power in the House would not change.

“Looking at you,” Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, D-Wash., wrote on X, tagging Gonzales, Cherfilus-McCormick and Mills, after Swalwell announced he was leaving early.

Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and Gonzales did not speak in the days leading up to the Texas Republican’s resignation, a source familiar with the matter told MS NOW.

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‘Let’s get these guys out of here’

Swalwell and Gonzales may have, technically, left Congress on their own terms, but the decision came as expulsion looked more and more like a certainty — the product of backchannel coordination between a bipartisan odd couple who had a shared goal of accountability on Capitol Hill.

Hours after Swalwell’s sexual assault allegations came to light, Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., took to X to call for his resignation.

“We don’t freaking run a halfway house for predators,” Luna told MS NOW on Monday.

The pressure grew from there.

On Saturday, Rep. Teresa Leger Fernández, D-N.M., the chair of the Democratic Women’s Caucus, called Luna to let her know she’d spearhead an expulsion resolution against Gonzales, the New Mexico Democrat told MS NOW.

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The two promised each other they’d support their respective resolutions — and the idea of Republicans and Democrats joining forces to push out Swalwell and Gonzales took hold.

“I talked with her directly,” Luna said. “She’s like, ‘I’ll be supporting yours,’ and I was like, ‘perfect, I’ll be supporting yours as well.’”

“Let’s get these guys out of here,” she added.

At first, the lawmakers explored lumping Swalwell and Gonzales into a single resolution, with neither side trusting the other that they would follow through with penalizing one of their own — a byproduct of the razor-thin majority. If the Swalwell expulsion vote were held first, Democrats were nervous Republicans wouldn’t vote to oust Gonzales. It was the same fear among GOP lawmakers.

“It’s less a question of who goes first, as long as there’s a deal that both are going,” one House Democrat, who requested anonymity to discuss the internal dynamics, told MS NOW. “Without a deal that both are going, then it becomes a question of who goes first and whether there’s any trust.”

But Leger Fernández, who sits on the powerful House Rules Committee, said she consulted with the parliamentarian and learned they couldn’t combine the two expulsions into one measure, making the behind-the-scenes coordination all the more important. 

In the end, Luna and Leger Fernández never had to figure out a solution: Swalwell and Gonzales took care of it on their own.

While accountability for Swalwell’s alleged misdeeds came together quickly, Gonzales’ took longer.

Luna filed resolutions to censure Gonzales in early March, when the allegations of his affair with a staffer who later died by suicide came to light. He admitted to the affair that same month.

But why it took so long for accountability was not lost on Democrats. 

“You have to ask yourself, what changed today, that he gets to resign today, as opposed to last week, two weeks ago, three weeks ago,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “And the difference was that they were waiting on some political horse trade of a number.”

Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., also questioned the timing of the Texas lawmaker’s exit, telling reporters it’s “interesting” it aligned with Swalwell.

“That should have happened a while back,” Burchett said of Gonzales’ departure. “But I find it interesting the timing with Swalwell.”

As Swalwell and Gonzales officially surrender their representative titles, lawmakers are shifting their attention to other members of Congress who they believe should not longer be serving in the body — continuing the resign-or-be-expelled pressure that has dominated Capitol Hill in recent days.

“It’s a good thing,” Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., said of Swalwell and Gonzales resigning. “They should have left sooner. I wish Gonzales had left sooner. That would have been better for our party.”

“So maybe there’ll be more,” he added.