Rep. Eric Swalwell announced Monday that he is suspending his presidential bid so he can focus on running for his House seat in California’s 15th Congressional District.
While Swalwell, 38, is set to run again for Congress, when he was laying the groundwork for his presidential campaign, he said he was going to give up his seat in order to focus on running for president. The House Democrat has been in Congress since 2013.
“So if you run — you are also a sitting congressman right now, but if you decide to run for president, would you give up your seat in Congress?” Swalwell was asked on the It’s All Political podcast in February.
“Yes,” Swalwell replied, adding, “Well, I think if you’re seeking a big job that would affect so many people, I think you have to assure the people you’re asking to vote for you that you’re not hedging and you don’t have a lifeboat waiting for you.”
Swalwell compared giving up his House seat with Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés: “They stormed the land. And he had them burn the ships behind them so there was no looking back.”
Swalwell made the issue of gun control the central aspect of his campaign, rolling out the most extensive gun control plan out of the crowded Democratic field in June.
While he championed banning and buying back all “assault weapons” in the country, Swalwell’s polling barely moved from 0%. He remained at 0%, even appearing as an asterisk in a CNN poll after the first pair of the Democratic primary debates. He is dropping out before his campaign has revealed if he qualified for the second set of debates in July.
