Rep. Anna Paulina Luna plans to force every member of the House to go on the record next week, vote yes or no on whether Rep. Eric Swalwell should keep his seat in Congress after a former staffer accused the California Democrat of sexual assault.
Luna, a Florida Republican, announced Saturday that she would file a privileged motion to expel Swalwell, a move that compels a floor vote and leaves no room for leadership to bury the matter in committee. The announcement came just one day after the allegations against Swalwell became public, and hours after House Speaker Hakeem Jeffries and other Democratic leaders issued a Friday night statement acknowledging what they called "incredibly disturbing sexual assault accusations" and urging Swalwell to drop out of the California governor's race immediately.
A former unidentified staffer said Swalwell sexually assaulted her on two occasions while she was intoxicated. One alleged incident occurred at a 2024 charity gala in New York, the New York Post reported. Swalwell, a leading Democratic candidate to succeed Gov. Gavin Newsom, has not been quoted responding to the allegations in available reporting.
The speed of the fallout is notable. Within hours of the accusations going public Friday, Jeffries and other House leaders put out their statement. Aides to Swalwell's gubernatorial campaign have reportedly been bailing since the allegations surfaced. And by Saturday, Luna was already on Fox News laying out her timeline for a vote.
A motion to expel a member is considered privileged in the House, meaning Luna can compel lawmakers to vote up or down. There is no procedural escape hatch, no tabling it quietly, no burying it in a subcommittee drawer. Every member will have to cast a recorded vote.
Luna made her position plain on Saturday:
"Eric has the option. I'm going to bring this vote next week. If Democrats want to protect this type of garbage, I wouldn't recommend it, but they're going to be put on the board for that."
She also posted on X: "I am filing a motion to expel Eric Swalwell from Congress." The post was dated April 11, 2026.
Luna acknowledged the role she has taken on in pushing for accountability inside the chamber. She told Fox News she doesn't relish it.
"I hate having to be kind of the hall monitor of Congress if you will, but it's gotten really bad."
That remark was not just about Swalwell. Luna said she also plans to bring a motion at the end of the month to expel Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, a Florida Democrat who faces federal grand jury charges of allegedly stealing $5 million in federal disaster funds and using a FEMA overpayment to support her 2021 congressional campaign. A House Ethics subcommittee found last month that 25 of 27 counts against Cherfilus-McCormick were proven.
Luna's warning to Cherfilus-McCormick was direct: if "she does not resign beforehand, we will expel her."
Jeffries and other House leaders did not call for Swalwell's resignation from Congress. Their Friday night statement focused on the gubernatorial race, urging him to "immediately end his campaign for governor." That distinction matters. Democratic leadership wants Swalwell off the ballot in California but has not, at least publicly, demanded he vacate his House seat.
Luna is forcing the larger question. If the allegations are serious enough for Swalwell's own party leaders to say he should stop running for governor, why should he remain a sitting member of Congress?
The Cherfilus-McCormick case offers an instructive parallel. That Florida Democrat was indicted on federal charges and found liable on the vast majority of ethics counts, yet she remains in office. Luna's dual expulsion push signals that she, and presumably other Republicans, believe the House has tolerated too much for too long.
Luna also said Swalwell was using campaign funds "to try to fight them out in court", a claim that, if accurate, raises its own set of questions about the use of donor money to defend against personal misconduct allegations rather than to advance the political purposes donors intended.
Luna's move against Swalwell does not exist in a vacuum. House Republicans have been increasingly willing to demand consequences for members accused of serious misconduct, including members of their own party.
Earlier this year, the Washington Times reported that Rep. Tony Gonzales of Texas faced mounting pressure from fellow Republicans to resign after allegations of an affair with a former staffer who later died by suicide. Reps. Lauren Boebert, Nancy Mace, and Luna herself all publicly called on Gonzales to step aside. Gonzales denied the affair allegations and refused to resign, saying the public had not yet seen all the facts.
Rep. Thomas Massie later joined the calls for Gonzales to leave, and House Speaker Mike Johnson said the accusations "must be taken seriously," as the Associated Press reported. A Gonzales resignation would have left Republicans with a 217-214 majority until special elections filled vacancies, a real political cost that GOP members were willing to accept in the name of accountability.
That willingness stands in contrast to the Democratic response to the Swalwell allegations. Jeffries and House leaders moved quickly to protect the party's brand in the California governor's race, but stopping short of demanding Swalwell leave Congress suggests a calculation about the seat rather than a judgment about the conduct.
Congressional misconduct has been a recurring theme on Capitol Hill in recent months. A former congressional aide recently pleaded guilty to stealing more than $22,000 from a Democratic lawmaker's bank account, a reminder that the culture of accountability in and around Congress has significant gaps.
Expelling a member of Congress is an extraordinary step. It requires a two-thirds supermajority, a high bar that has rarely been cleared in American history. Luna's motion may not succeed on the merits of the vote count alone. But the political pressure it creates is real.
Every Democrat in the House will have to decide whether to vote to protect a colleague accused of sexual assault by a former staffer, or to side with the motion. Every Republican will face the same recorded vote. There is no hiding from it.
Luna has made clear she views this as part of a broader effort. Between the Swalwell motion next week and the planned Cherfilus-McCormick motion at the end of the month, she is stacking the calendar with accountability votes that force the House to confront its own tolerance for alleged misconduct. The broader pattern of fraud and abuse involving public funds, from FEMA disaster money to campaign accounts, gives her effort a context that extends well beyond any single member.
Several open questions remain. What evidence, if any, has the former staffer provided beyond her account? Has Swalwell responded publicly to the specific allegations? What is the exact procedural timeline once Luna files her privileged motion? And will Democratic leadership's position evolve from "drop out of the governor's race" to "leave Congress" if the pressure mounts?
For now, what we know is this: the allegations surfaced Friday, Democratic leaders tried to limit the damage to the California race by Friday night, Swalwell's campaign staff started heading for the exits, and by Saturday a Republican congresswoman had announced she would force every member of the House to cast a public vote on whether Swalwell stays or goes.
When your own party's leaders call the accusations against you "incredibly disturbing" and tell you to quit your campaign, but not your seat, the gap between those two positions tells you everything about where the real accountability is coming from.
