OAN Staff Katherine Mosack
11:34 AM – Friday, November 21, 2025
In a surprise move, Democrat Representative Eric Swalwell announced Thursday night on ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” that he is running to succeed term-limited Governor Gavin Newsom.
Soon after the announcement, Kimmel could be seen grinning at the camera, dropping the punchline: “The president is not going to like this show tonight.”
“Why does ABC Fake News keep Jimmy Kimmel, a man with NO TALENT and VERY POOR TELEVISION RATINGS, on the air? Why do the TV Syndicates put up with it? Also, totally biased coverage. Get the bum off the air!!!” Trump wrote recently on Wednesday.
“I love California. It’s the greatest country in the world,” Swalwell stated to the sound of applause. “Greatest country in the world.”
Advertisement“But that’s why it pisses me off to see Californians running through the fields where they work from ICE agents or troops in our streets…or cancer research being canceled. It’s awful to look at. And our state, this great state, needs a fighter and a protector, someone who will bring prices down, lift wages up,” he told Kimmel. “And we can say that we’re the fourth-largest economy in the world — and we are, and I love to brag about that — but what does that mean if you can’t afford to live here?”
“I’ve been in these fights…but I’m ready to bring this fight home. So, I came here tonight, Jimmy, to tell you and your audience that I’m running to be the next governor of California,” he added, receiving a standing ovation from the studio audience.
As of November 2025, California’s economy remains one of the most dominant forces on the planet. If treated as an independent nation, it ranks as the fifth-largest economy in the world by nominal GDP, according to the latest data from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). This positions it just behind the United States ($30.5 trillion), China ($19.2 trillion), Germany ($4.7 trillion), and Japan ($4.28 trillion), but ahead of India ($4.125 trillion) and the United Kingdom ($3.96 trillion).
Swalwell’s campaign video, posted to X on Thursday, declared that the first job the “next California governor” faces is to “keep the worst president in our history out of our homes, out of our streets, and out of our lives.”
“No one will keep Californians safer than I will,” Swalwell says in the video. “No one.”
Swalwell then reminded the audience of the moment that first thrust him onto the national stage: when then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi tapped him for the House Intelligence Committee specifically “to help lead the impeachment of a corrupt president.” Swalwell reframed his Trump criticism not as partisan sniping, but as a “duty” assigned by Democrat leadership at the highest level.
The 2026 race to succeed Newsom is already crowded and competitive. Declared Democrat candidates include:
- former U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra
- former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa
- billionaire philanthropist and climate activist Tom Steyer
- former Congresswoman Katie Porter
- State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond
- former State Controller Betty Yee
- former Assemblymember Ian Calderon
- business executive Stephen Cloobeck
On the Republican side, Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco and political commentator Steve Hilton have announced their campaigns, while Los Angeles developer Rick Caruso is actively considering a bid.
The last Republican to win a California gubernatorial election was Arnold Schwarzenegger, who was reelected in 2006. No Republican has won statewide office since.
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