Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., an outspoken critic of President Trump, officially entered the 2020 White House race during his Monday appearance on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.”

The 38-year-old four-term congressman is a member of the House Judiciary Committee and the House Intelligence Committee, which for years has made headlines over its investigations of Russian influence in U.S. elections and federal surveillance.

“I’ve been in Congress for six years, I’ve defended our country from the Intelligence Committee while democracy has been on the ropes... and I see a country in quicksand, unable to solve problems and threats from abroad, unable to make life better for people here at home. Nothing gets done,” Swalwell told Stephen Colbert. The show released a preview clip with his announcement ahead of its airing Monday night.

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He continued, “I’ve talked to people who are just like me who are the first in their family to go to college, got a lot of student debt, can’t buy a home, can’t start a business. I’ve talked to kids who sit in their classroom afraid that they’ll be the next victim of gun violence and they see Washington do nothing about it after the moments of silence and they see lawmakers who love their guns more than they love our kids.”

Swalwell declared, “None of that is going to change until we get a leader who is willing to go big on the issues we take on, be bold in the solutions we offer, and do good in the way that we govern. I’m ready to solve these problems. I’m running for the president of the United States.”

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Swalwell isn’t the first Democrat to make an official announcement on “The Late Show.” New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand revealed to Colbert she was launching an exploratory committee back in January. She has since made her candidacy official.

Rep. Swalwell is the eighteenth candidate who has joined the crowded field of Democrats in the primary.</s>WASHINGTON — California Rep. Eric Swalwell is officially in the running for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination.

Swalwell made the announcement during a taping Monday of CBS’ “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.”

The congressman says, “I see a country in quicksand, unable to solve threats from abroad, unable to make life better for people here at home.”

He says, “None of that is going to change until we get a leader who is willing to go big on the issues we take on, be bold in the solutions we offer and do good in the way that we govern.”

He says: “I’m ready to solve these problems. I’m running for president of the United States.”

The 38-year-old Iowa native was elected in 2012 to represent California’s 15th Congressional District.</s>
• California congressman Eric Swalwell announced on Monday he’s running for the 2020 Democratic nomination for president.
• Swalwell, 38, has represented California’s 15th Congressional District since 2013. He serves on the high-profile House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, leading the CIA subcommittee.
• Swalwell’s official announcement comes after visits to Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina to test the waters.

The three-term California congressman Eric Swalwell announced on Monday he is running for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination. He is the 18th Democrat to join one of the most crowded primary fields in modern US history.

Esquire first reported Swalwell’s announcement on Monday. He was set to go public with it on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” Monday night, alongside Cameron Kasky, a cofounder of the March For Our Lives, a gun-reform activist, and a survivor of the mass shooting in Parkland, Florida.

Swalwell has made a name for himself in Congress as a top Democrat on the high-profile House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and is now leading the subcommittee overseeing the CIA. He also holds a spot on the prestigious House Judiciary Committee.

Swalwell is best known for his work on the committee’s investigations into Russian interference in the 2016 election, frequently appearing on cable news to discuss the latest twists and turns of those inquiries.

But the California congressman has also been a vocal advocate for gun-law reform in the wake of several mass shootings in the US in recent years. He said his presidential campaign will focus on combatting the issue of gun violence in America, The Atlantic first reported earlier this month.

“I see a country in quicksand,” Swalwell told Colbert of his decision to run.

“Unable to solve threats from abroad, and unable to make life better for people here at home…none of that is going to change unless we get a leader willing to go big on the issues we take on, be bold on the solutions we offer and do good in the way that we govern.”

Read more: The Trump campaign is trying to force hostile pundits off the air in revenge for their Mueller report commentary

After his presidential aspirations were reported by Politico in November, Swalwell has traveled around the country and visited Democratic groups in Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina to test the presidential waters.

At 38 years old, Swalwell is one of the youngest candidates in the 2020 Democratic field. After graduating from law school, he served as a deputy district attorney and was on the Dublin City Council of Dublin, California, before first running for the House in 2012.

Swalwell represents California’s affluent and racially diverse 15th Congressional District, which is east of San Francisco.

He will face a potentially uphill battle to compete for votes and donations with fellow California Democrat Sen. Kamala Harris, who has racked up dozens of home-state endorsements and raised $12 million since announcing her candidacy in January.

Read more: California moved up its presidential primary and it could be the biggest factor in 2020 and beyond

But Swalwell is betting on his focus on gun violence, combined with his appeal as a young politician, to help him stand out from the rest of the field.

“I do believe that the country, by sending about 27 new members of Congress who are in their 40s and under, that they embraced in this last midterm election new leadership, new ideas and much importantly, a new confidence,” he told MSNBC in December.

Along with his pledges to hold President Donald Trump accountable to the law, Swalwell has met with Parkland shooting survivors and uses his social media to highlight being a working parent who is still paying off his student debt while raising two young children.

Swalwell has also made a priority of flying back to California every weekend to visit constituents and spend a day working at a small business in his district, using the hashtag #InYourShoes.</s>The three-term California congressman Eric Swalwell announced on Monday he is running for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination. He is the 18th Democrat to join one of the most crowded primary fields in modern US history.

Esquire first reported Swalwell's announcement on Monday. He was set to go public with it on "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert" Monday night, alongside Cameron Kasky, a cofounder of the March For Our Lives, a gun-reform activist, and a survivor of the mass shooting in Parkland, Florida.

Swalwell has made a name for himself in Congress as a top Democrat on the high-profile House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and is now leading the subcommittee overseeing the CIA. He also holds a spot on the prestigious House Judiciary Committee.

Swalwell is best known for his work on the committee's investigations into Russian interference in the 2016 election, frequently appearing on cable news to discuss the latest twists and turns of those inquiries.

But the California congressman has also been a vocal advocate for gun-law reform in the wake of several mass shootings in the US in recent years. He said his presidential campaign will focus on combatting the issue of gun violence in America, The Atlantic first reported earlier this month.

Read more: The Trump campaign is trying to force hostile pundits off the air in revenge for their Mueller report commentary

After his presidential aspirations were reported by Politico in November, Swalwell has traveled around the country and visited Democratic groups in Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina to test the presidential waters.

At 38 years old, Swalwell is one of the youngest candidates in the 2020 Democratic field. After graduating from law school, he served as a deputy district attorney and was on the Dublin City Council of Dublin, California, before first running for the House in 2012.

Swalwell represents California's affluent and racially diverse 15th Congressional District, which is east of San Francisco.

He will face an uphill battle to compete for votes and donations with fellow California Democrat Sen. Kamala Harris, who has racked up dozens of home-state endorsements and has raised $12 million since announcing her candidacy in January.

Read more: California moved up its presidential primary and it could be the biggest factor in 2020 and beyond

But Swalwell is betting on his focus on gun violence, combined with his appeal as a young politician, to help him stand out from the rest of the field.

"I do believe that the country, by sending about 27 new members of Congress who are in their 40s and under, that they embraced in this last midterm election new leadership, new ideas and much importantly, a new confidence," he told MSNBC in December.

Along with his pledges to hold President Donald Trump accountable to the law, Swalwell has met with Parkland shooting survivors and uses his social media to highlight that he is a working parent who is still paying off his student debt while raising two young children.

Swalwell has also prioritized flying back to California every weekend to visit constituents and spend a day at a time working at various small businesses in his district, using the hashtag #InYourShoes.</s>IOWA CITY, IOWA - FEBRUARY 18: Congressman Eric Swalwell (D-CA) meets guests during an event at the Iowa City Public Library on February 18, 2019 in Iowa City, Iowa. Swalwell has been making stops around Iowa talking to voters as he mulls a decision to seek the 2020 Democratic nomination for president. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON (AP) — California Rep. Eric Swalwell is officially in the running for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination.

Swalwell made the announcement during a taping Monday of CBS’ “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.”

The congressman says, “I see a country in quicksand, unable to solve threats from abroad, unable to make life better for people here at home.”

He says, “None of that is going to change until we get a leader who is willing to go big on the issues we take on, be bold in the solutions we offer and do good in the way that we govern.”

He says: “I’m ready to solve these problems. I’m running for president of the United States.”

The 38-year-old Iowa native was elected in 2012 to represent California’s 15th Congressional District.</s>NEW YORK — Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell announced Monday that he is running for president, telling “Late Show” host Stephen Colbert that he believes the United States is in “quicksand” where Americans feel they are “running in place and it is not adding up to anything.”

Swalwell has been contemplating a run for months. The California Democrat has made several trips to early nominating states like Iowa and New Hampshire, telling reporters that he sees a space for a candidate like himself in the race and hinted earlier this month that he was “close to making a decision.”

“None of that is going to change until we get a leader who is willing to go big on the issues we take on, be bold in the solutions we offer and do good in the ways that we govern. I am ready to solve these problems. I am running for president of the United States,” he told Colbert.

Swalwell, who also filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission on Monday, added, “Boy, did it feel good to say that.”

Swalwell, 38, enters the race as a long-shot candidate in a crowded field of 17 other Democrats, many of whom have more national name recognition, electoral experience and campaign war chests. The field is also slated to get larger in the coming weeks: former Vice President Joe Biden’s announcement is looming this month, along with possible entrances by Rep. Seth Moulton, former Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe and Georgia Democrat Stacey Abrams.

Swalwell and his small team of political advisers began to make plans for an April announcement last month, telling a small group of early state operatives that the four-term congressman from the Bay Area plans to enter the race.

Swalwell’s planning got so specific that an aide close to the congressman told early state Democrats in March that he would announce his campaign on a late night show, according to those Democrats.

“I have already done a lot,” said of his time in Congress and his presidential bid, “but I can do more.”

Swalwell will follow up his announcement with a frenetic week of campaigning.

The first event will be a Tuesday town hall focused on gun control in Sunrise, Florida — a few miles from Parkland’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, the site of the 2018 school shooting that left 17 people dead.

Swalwell has made combating gun violence a focus for months and traveled to Iowa in December with Cameron Kasky, a student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School and co-founder of March for Our Lives, the student activist group that grew out of the shooting.

“We should go big and be bold and expect in our lifetime that we can have background checks,” Swalwell said at the Progress Iowa event in December. “We can ban and buy back every single weapon of war. We can fund and study gun violence. We can take care of people with mental illness needs.”

The congressman will then travel to Iowa on Thursday, South Carolina on Friday, his home district in California on Sunday — where he will, according to an advisory, discuss his “vision for the East Bay and America” — and Nevada next Monday.

Swalwell has raised his profile in recent years by becoming a staple on cable television, especially to talk about investigations into the Trump administration. But he admitted in a December interview with CNN that a possible presidential bid against big-name politicians like Biden and Sen. Bernie Sanders is “daunting.”

“I don’t want to do it half-assed,” he said. “I would want it to be a serious campaign that could be a winning campaign.”</s>California Rep. Eric Swalwell Is Running For President, Too, With A Focus on Guns

California Rep. Eric Swalwell is the latest Democrat to jump into the race for president.

"I see a country in quicksand, unable to solve problems and threats from abroad, unable to make life better for people here at home. Nothing gets done," Swalwell said in an appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert Monday night.

After walking through a list of issues from foreign threats to student loan debt to gun violence, he added, "None of that is going to change until we get a leader who is willing to go big on thee issues we take on, be bold in the solutions we offer and do good in the way that we govern. I'm ready to solve these problems. I'm running for president of the United States."

Swalwell is the 18th Democrat to join the race for the party's 2020 presidential nomination.

One of the key issues the California Democrat, 38, is highlighting is one important to young voters in particular: gun safety. He's hosting a town hall Tuesday on the subject at the BB&T Center in Sunrise, Fla., only 13 miles from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., the scene of the 2018 massacre that killed 17 people. The BB&T Center, where the Florida Panthers ice hockey team plays, is an arena with capacity seating of more than 20,000.

That Parkland shooting has led to mass demonstrations and activism from not just survivors of the shooting but many other young people across the country. In fact, helping to organize the town hall was Cameron Kasky, a Parkland survivor, who was Swalwell's guest for the State of the Union address.

Swalwell has also taken on the National Rifle Association, proposing an assault-weapons ban. The NRA put Swalwell on the cover of its January magazine, which Swalwell embraced, saying he is "living in the NRA's head."

Swalwell got put on that cover after landing in controversy a couple months earlier because of a reply to a Twitter user. The user said Swalwell "wants a war" over gun rights and that he's out of his mind "if you think I'll give up my rights and give the gov[ernment] all the power."

To which Swalwell said, "it would be a short war my friend. The government has nukes."

It would make some sense that Swalwell announce in a pop-culture setting, given that he was appointed as the director of youth outreach for the House Democratic caucus by House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi in 2015.

Swalwell, who was born in Iowa but grew up in California, is less known than some other Democrats running for president. But he has been a fixture on cable news during the Mueller probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election and alleged collusion with the Trump campaign.

Swalwell is used to being the underdog. He won his seat to Congress in 2012 when he was only 31. The former deputy district attorney from the East Bay are of California, near San Francisco, ousted a 40-year incumbent Democrat, Pete Stark.

That rankled the party establishment, but he quickly made nice with Pelosi, a fellow Bay Area congresswoman – and powerful leader on Capitol Hill.

Instead of making an enemy of Swalwell, Pelosi, who has faced criticism that the party needs younger leadership, embraced him. Swalwell became known as the "Snapchat king of Congress."

"I realized that so many of our constituents were on Snapchat," Swalwell told The Hill in 2016. "It wasn't just young people, but their parents had figured out that's where their kids are."

Swalwell has been married to Brittany Watts since 2016. He was married once before, but it ended in divorce.</s>ASSOCIATED PRESS Rep. Eric Swalwell, a Democrat from California, is the latest to enter the crowded 2020 race.

He also published an op-ed in the San Francisco Chronicle on Monday detailing why he decided to run. Notably, the first issue he raised was gun violence.

“It is astonishing and unacceptable that we have let school massacres become part of daily life,” he wrote. “As a former prosecutor and the father of two young children, I will end this failure of leadership. ... I’m the only candidate calling for a mandatory national ban and buyback of military-style semiautomatic assault weapons. It’s bold and will cost money, but it is constitutional and it rightly treats gun violence as a life-or-death matter.”

He also highlighted his plans to campaign on climate change, health care, foreign policy and student loan debt.

Swalwell, who’s represented a district in California’s San Francisco Bay Area since 2013, joins an increasingly crowded Democratic ticket. In interviews leading up to his announcement, the 38-year-old acknowledged his stiff competition.

The race is “a steep mountain, and the other climbers at the base right now are some of the best and talented,” he told The San Francisco Chronicle’s “It’s All Political” podcast in late February. “And that, of course, is intimidating. But I see a path to the top, and I know what it would take to get me there. I think we could do it.”

Though California’s election rules would allow Swalwell to run for re-election for his House seat and the presidency at the same time, he has repeatedly stated that he won’t do so in an effort to show voters that he’s all in.

Swallwell, a regular presence on cable news shows, has become a prominent voice during the congressional investigations into possible collusion between President Donald Trump’s campaign and Russia during the 2016 election.</s>Congressman Eric Swalwell (D-CA) announced on Monday’s Late Show that he is running for president in 2020, joining an already-crowded Democratic field. The show tweeted a preview clip of Monday’s episode, allowing the 38-year-old to outline his campaign focus on gun control.

“I see a country in quicksand — unable to solve problems and threats from abroad, unable to make life better for people here at home,” said the four-term congressman, a member of both the House Intelligence and Judiciary committees. “Nothing gets done. I talk to teachers and truckers and nurses, and they feel like they’re just running in place. And it’s not adding up to anything. I talk to people who are just like me — who are the first in their family to go to college, who’ve got a lot of student debt, can’t buy a home, can’t start a business.”

“I talk to kids who sit in their classroom afraid that they’ll be the next victim of gun violence,” he continued. “And they see Washington doing nothing about it after the moments of silence, and they see lawmakers who love their guns more than they love their kids. And none of that is gonna change until we get a leader who is willing to go big on the issues we take on, be bold in the solutions we offer and do good in the way that we govern. I’m ready to solve theses problems. I’m running for president of the United States.”

Swalwell weaved the Colbert footage into a new campaign video pinned to his Twitter. Over dramatic strings, the Democrat summarizes his vision of the American dream and unveils the slogan “GO BIG. BE BOLD. DO GOOD.”

The politician is making gun safety a campaign priority. On Tuesday, April 9th, he will join Cameron Kasky — a survivor of the February 2018 mass shooting in Parkland, Florida, who helped organize the March for Our Lives demonstration — to host a town hall in Coral Springs, Florida. (In February, Kasky accompanied Swalwell to the State of the Union address.) “I do believe that gun safety has to be a top 2020 issue,” Swalwell recently told The Atlantic.</s>California Rep. Eric Swalwell, one of President Trump's most outspoken critics in Congress, announced he is seeking the presidential nomination in what is shaping up to be the largest Democratic primary field in U.S. history.

The 38-year-old San Francisco area lawmaker announced his presidential campaign during an appearance on "The Late Night Show with Stephen Colbert" airing Monday night on CBS.

"I've already done a lot, but I can do more," he said in a clip released by the show. "I've been in Congress for six years. I've defended our country from the Intelligence Committee while Democracy has been on the ropes."

Swalwell enters a crowded race for president with more than a dozen candidates seeking to capture the Democratic nomination and thwart Mr. Trump's reelection bid next year. To date, 17 other Democrats have declared their candidacy for president or launched presidential exploratory committees, including Sens. Bernie Sanders, Kirsten Gillibrand, Kamala Harris, Cory Booker and Elizabeth Warren; Ohio Rep. Tim Ryan; Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard; Texas Rep. Beto O'Rourke; and South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg.

Under the Trump administration, Swalwell, a four-term lawmaker and member of the House Intelligence and Judiciary Committees, has solidified himself as one of the leading detractors of the White House, constantly appearing on cable news to condemn the president's policies and defend special counsel Robert Mueller's now-completed investigation.

With the release of the Justice Department summary of Mueller's report — which said the special counsel found no evidence of collusion or coordination between the Trump campaign and the Russian government — Swalwell will make gun safety reform his top agenda item on the campaign trail.

"I've talked to kids who sit in their classroom afraid that they'll be the next victim of gun violence. I see Washington do nothing about it after the moments of silence. And I see lawmakers who love their guns more than they love our kids," Swalwell said Monday. "And none of that is gonna change until we get a leader who's willing to go big on the issues we take, be bold in the solutions we offer and do good in the way that we govern."

"I'm ready to solve these problems," he added.

Last week, the California Democrat shared a voicemail his office received in which an individual is heard making a death threat against him because of his stance on gun rights. "We're going to war. And you're going to be the first motherf***ing casualty," the person in the voicemail posted by Swalwell on Twitter is heard saying.

In his post, Swalwell wrote, "I'm not afraid of this guy. I'm not afraid of the NRA. I'm not afraid. No fear. #EndGunViolence."

Swalwell, who has been participating in events in Iowa, his home state, in recent months, is also hosting a town hall on gun control in Florida on Tuesday alongside survivors of the Stoneman Douglas High School massacre, in which 17 students and staff members were killed by a gunman.

Before his congressional tenure, Swalwell earned his J.D. from the University of Maryland and was a congressional intern for former California Rep. Ellen Tauscher.
U.S. Representative Eric Swalwell from California announces he is running for the Democratic Party's nomination to be President of the United States in the 2020 presidential election.