Eric Swalwell faces scrutiny over raunchy college poems, defense of convicted cop killers, alleged Chinese spy ties and residency disputes as he runs for California governor
Before Eric Swalwell was a congressman, an impeachment manager, or a presidential candidate, he was writing poetry about biting, blood, and kissing “till veins imploded and exploded,” the Daily Mail first obtained.
The verses, scrawled during his time as a government and politics major at Campbell University, open with a woman biting the speaker’s arm and end with “her form sloppy” and a mutual groan. Not exactly the stuff of C-SPAN.
As a contributor to the student newspaper The Campbell Times and campus literary magazine The Lyricist, he penned the steamy poem titled “Hungover From Burgundy,” depicting a wild chase between lovers that ends in a bloody, explosive kiss.
Steamy poems weren’t Swalwell’s only controversial college output. While writing for The Campbell Times under the moniker “The Radically Poetic,” Swalwell reportedly penned an opinion piece advocating for the release of two criminals convicted of killing law enforcement officers.
The comments from Swalwell’s early years come as a surprise, given that the lawmaker has regularly touted his father’s work in local law enforcement.
“America, it’s time to wake up. I encourage everyone to research for themselves the stories of these prisoners and others who, at the very least, deserve a fair trial,” Swalwell wrote, according to a picture obtained by the Daily Mail. “Free Peltier. Free Abu-Jamal. Free all political prisoners. We cannot wait for another movie.”
While it’s no surprise that such a start eventually shaped him into one of the Democratic Party’s reliable tools, the lawmaker is now positioning himself as the visionary architect of a “new California.”
Reaching for the highest office in the state, Swalwell vows to reshape the Golden State from the ground up.
Yet beneath the polished campaign sheen lurks a history tangled in eyebrow-raising college escapades and a murky trail of residences — leaving voters to wonder: Just how well do they know the man who could soon hold their future?
FLEEING CALIFORNIA?
Scandals have shadowed Swalwell’s career for years, but his run for governor has cranked up the scrutiny like never before. At the center of the controversy are questions about where he has actually lived for the past five years.
California’s constitution demands gubernatorial candidates be U.S. citizens and state residents for the five years immediately preceding the election.
Yet months after Swalwell launched his bid to build a “new California,” conservative filmmaker Joel Gilbert hauled him into superior court, alleging materially false candidate filings under penalty of perjury and failure to meet the residency test. (RELATED: New Legal Challenge Asserts Eric Swalwell is Ineligible to Run for CA Governor)
Swalwell has long touted his Northern California roots, moving from Iowa as a kid and raised by Republicans in Dublin. He cut his teeth as a deputy DA around 2006, then won city council in 2010.
By 2013, when he entered Congress, he began splitting his time between the Bay Area and D.C., which has notoriously become a standard among politicians in D.C. who frequently travel between their offices in D.C. and their districts.
While lawmakers often maintain properties outside their districts, most invest in their home turf to stay connected to their constituents, the very people they represent.
Adam Schiff (D-CA), for example, owns a Maryland home near D.C. as his primary while holding a small condo in Burbank, claiming a homeowner’s exemption there amid dual-residency backlash.
Swalwell claimed on the record to live in Dublin while splitting time in the nation’s capital. But, Alameda County records appear to show no evidence of him owning property in the Bay Area.
In February, Swalwell pushed back, insisting he’s “lived/paid rent” every month in Northern California since returning after law school, and framing rental criticisms as attacks on affordability and student loan borrowers.
However, reports from 2020 revealed a longer-term anchor in D.C.: He and his wife bought a $1.2 million four-story Victorian bungalow — six bedrooms, 5.5 baths, over 3,000 square feet — with modern upgrades that have doubled as backdrops for media hits and campaign launch snippets.
Current details add another layer. Swalwell allegedly rents in Livermore — a modest three-bedroom, 1,350-square-foot home owned by Nicolas and Kristina Mrzywka, the Sacramento Bee reported.
The link? Kristina is the sister of Stephanie Sbranti, wife of Tim Sbranti, Swalwell’s former deputy chief of staff and district director from 2015–2018, a longtime political mentor.
Court filings show Kristina Mrzywka confirmed Swalwell and his wife have rented the property since June 2017. Interviewed by the Sacramento Bee, Sbranti said he suggested the setup as “an affordable base in an expensive district.”
Yet the average home price in Livermore has dropped to a median around $1.1 million, per Zillow, raising questions about just how “affordable” the arrangement really needed to be.
Despite calls, including from rival gubernatorial candidate Tom Steyer, to Secretary of State Shirley Weber to enforce the residency clause, her office has long maintained the provision violates the U.S. Constitution and is unenforceable.
In response to recent scrutiny, Attorney General Rob Bonta wrote on Weber’s behalf that the SOS isn’t required to investigate beyond a candidate’s attestation: “Nothing in these statutes requires Respondent to look beyond a candidate’s attestation in the Declaration of Candidacy and conduct a fact-intensive investigation into their residency status.”
The decision to sink over a million dollars into the D.C. Victorian home before buying or owning in his home state stands out as he vys for the state’s top office. No other California lawmaker has appeared to make the same property play.
Swalwell’s campaign team did not respond to the California Courier’s questions regarding the residency allegations.
Criticism over his whereabouts isn’t the last shadow in Swalwell’s past though.
INSIDE THE OFFICE
Swalwell has faced repeated scrutiny over his alleged personal and professional ties to a suspected Chinese intelligence operative during his rise in Congress.
In 2020, reports surfaced that Christine Fang, also known as Fang Fang, a suspected Chinese intelligence operative, bundled campaign contributions for Swalwell and helped place an intern in his office.
Between 2011 and 2015, Fang worked to build connections with multiple Democratic lawmakers in California, including Swalwell, allegedly at the direction of China’s Ministry of State Security, according to a 2020 Axios investigation. She began supporting his career while he was still on the Dublin City Council, raising funds for his 2014 congressional reelection and facilitating at least one intern placement.
Then-Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe briefed congressional intelligence committees on the alleged influence efforts.
Swalwell has consistently denied any knowledge of Fang’s ties or a personal relationship, cut contact immediately after an FBI briefing in 2015, and cooperated with investigators. No classified information was believed to have been compromised.
A House Ethics Committee probe, opened in 2021 during the Biden administration, cleared him in 2023 of any wrongdoing related to the interactions.
Swalwell’s background includes college poems that glorified violence and called for freeing convicted cop killers, a rental-only arrangement in California paired with a lavish D.C. purchase and past alleged ties to a suspected Chinese intelligence operative. As he seeks the governorship, voters can decide whether that history demonstrates the judgment California’s top office demands.
