Rep. Eric Swalwell announces his bid for California governor

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Rep. Eric Swalwell, a Democrat who served as a House manager in President Donald Trump’s 2021 impeachment trial, has launched his bid for California governor.

Swalwell highlighted his desire to help Californians prosper as he announced his candidacy on ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” on Thursday night.

“Our state, this great state, needs a fighter and a protector,” Swalwell said. “Someone who will bring prices down, lift wages up.”

He also touched on his clashes with Trump, saying he was ready “to bring this fight home.”

“Our state is under attack,” Swalwell said in a statement on his campaign website. Trump “has militarized our streets, canceled cancer research, zeroed out clean energy climate projects, and is chasing our immigrant friends and neighbors through their workplaces, kids’ schools, and houses of worship.”

Swalwell’s announcement on Kimmel’s late-night show came after renewed attacks from Trump on ABC and Kimmel this week. The network temporarily suspended the comic in September for remarks made following the assassination of GOP activist Charlie Kirk. ABC lifted the suspension following a public outcry. On Thursday, the president urged ABC to “get the bum off the air” in a social media post.

Swalwell represents a northern California district where he was first elected in 2012. He was a candidate in the 2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries before dropping out and endorsing Joe Biden.

More than a half dozen Democrats and two Republicans are competing in an all-party June primary, with the top two vote-getters advancing to a November general election to succeed term-limited Gov. Gavin Newsom. Other Democratic candidates include billionaire businessman and activist Tom Steyer, former Rep. Katie Porter, former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and former U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra.