Is Eric Swalwell disqualified from serving as California’s governor and its U.S. representative?

 by Andrea Widburg

There are few figures in politics more unpleasant than Rep. Eric Swalwell (D. CA), one of the leading figures in the Democrat war against Donald Trump. Just the other day, in a rant on MS NOW, Fang-Fang’s former lover told supporters that, when he becomes California’s governor, he’ll strip ICE officers of their immunity, prosecute them, and even take away their driver’s licenses. (He’s forgotten the Supremacy Clause, of course, but the threat is still vicious.)

However, if Joel Gilbert, a conservative documentary filmmaker, is correct about Swalwell’s primary place of residency, Swalwell may not have the chance to see if the voters want to elect him as governor. Instead, he’ll be kicked off the ballot and, arguably, also get kicked out of the House of Representatives.

Under Article V, Section 2 of the California Constitution, a person who wishes to be elected as governor of California “shall be an elector who has been a citizen of the United States and a resident of this State for 5 years immediately preceding the Governor’s election.”

In this context, “resident” is defined according to 18 Calif. Revenue and Taxation Code § 17014, and it carefully distinguishes between those who are “domiciled” in California and those who are residents. So, what’s a resident?

A resident is someone who is not merely passing through or living temporarily in the state. The determination of whether the person is a resident is evidence- or fact-based. The Franchise Tax Board looks at things such as:

• Maintaining a residence
• The length of the person’s physical residency in the state.
• The nature of personal and professional connections
• Whether the person maintains ties to California (bank accounts, voter registration, property, etc).

Obviously, one must tread delicately when someone is a member of the House of Representatives, since that person, while representing his or her home state, nevertheless has Washington, D.C., as a primary place of business. So, what specific allegations does Joel Gilbert make to justify his claim that Swalwell fails to meet this residency requirement?

First, Swalwell seems to have followed the same trajectory as other politicians (allegedly including Adam Schiff) in claiming his D.C. property as his “principal residence.” He did this in 2022, which is within the five-year window for the California Constitution’s residency requirement.

Indeed, Swalwell has no California residency at all. Instead, Swalwell claimed on his Candidate’s information statement that his attorney’s office, in Sacramento, is his California home. As you can see, though, this is an office building that’s a four-minute drive from the State Capitol. The only people who might live there are any homeless people who’ve found shelter in the doorway.

Those facts are pretty damning. If you’re claiming your D.C. home as a principal residence in a signed Deed of Trust, either it is indeed your principal residence or you’re committing mortgage fraud. And since Swalwell is unlikely to admit to mortgage fraud, he’s just separated himself from California and failed in the most basic requirement for a gubernatorial candidate.

Of course, it’s not just that Swalwell’s signed statements, if Gilbert’s contentions are accurate, should disqualify him from running for California governor. In addition, he needs to be kicked out of the House of Representatives.

Why? Because Article I, Section 2 of the United States Constitution requires that a member of the House of Representatives must “when elected, be an inhabitant of that state in which he shall be chosen.”

As noted, once a person is elected to Congress, D.C. becomes his working address. Nevertheless, there are ways to determine whether he still had ties to his state when elected (as Swalwell did most recently in 2024).

The requirement is straightforward: the candidate must be a state resident at the time of election. And that, of course, gets us right back to Swalwell’s claim that his D.C. house was his primary residence, along with the fact that the only California address he can offer is his attorney’s office.

The lure of a cheap mortgage may be the Achilles’ heel of Eric Swalwell’s entire political career. If Gilbert is correct, he’s unqualified to serve either as a member of the House of Representatives or to run as a candidate for California governor. That being the case, he needs to be escorted out of Congress and knocked off the ballot in California.

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2026/01/is_eric_swalwell_disqualified_from_serving_as_california_s_governor_and_its_u_s_representative.html