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It was less than a week ago that Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell was a front-runner to be the next governor of California, and he’s now out of a job.

Sexual misconduct allegations against Swalwell and Texas Republican Tony Gonzales that led to their announced resignations from the House this week have also brought more scrutiny to secretive congressional ethics processes. In particular, to past payouts from a federal fund to settle claims for violations of workplace rights in the legislative branch made prior to December 2018.

The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee has already subpoenaed details of the payouts, which have come under more scrutiny this year.

That creates what might best be described as a known unknown for the 2026 campaign cycle – if names of incumbents who wouldn’t generally be vulnerable to primary challenges or general election scrutiny make the list. 

And as our colleague Nina Heller reported, the Ethics Committee’s operations are once again being questioned, with some lawmakers saying they are frustrated with the length of time it takes to move investigations through the panel.

Inquiries of Swalwell and Gonzales are now effectively moot with both out of Congress, but other investigations, including those involving Democratic Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick and Republican Rep. Cory Mills, both of Florida, remain ongoing.

Our friend Jacob Rubashkin at Inside Elections flagged potentially irregular spending by Cherfilus-McCormick as far back as 2022, though she faced no opposition in 2024 and won by default.

In contrast, the congresswoman has drawn a crowded field of primary challengers this year. Mills, who’s a Democratic target this cycle, also has a fight on his hands for the GOP nomination.

Starting gate

Money matters: Congressional candidate fundraising reports covering the first three months of the year show several Democrats raking in staggering sums in both Senate and House races. Check out our takeaways.

Virginia votes: Virginians will weigh in on a new congressional map on Tuesday, a referendum that has drawn fierce campaigning by both parties as they seek an edge in the fight for the House in this fall’s midterm elections. 

Hawkeye hopes: In their quest to retake the Senate, Democrats believe Iowa represents a top pickup opportunity, Daniela and our colleague Savannah Behrmann report. “I’m not sure the noise is loud enough on the frustration with tariffs, and I don’t think people are quite putting together the impact that fossil fuel is going to have at the farm yet,” Seth Watkins, the leader of a Democrat-aligned farmers group, told Savannah.

#MeToo 2.0: House watchers and victim advocates warn that the departures of Swalwell and Gonzales won’t – and shouldn’t – be the end of Congress’ reckoning with sexual harassment in the workplace, our colleagues Valerie Yurk and Nina Heller report. 

Garden State special: Polls are hours away from closing in the special election to fill the North Jersey seat formerly held by Gov. Mikie Sherrill. Democrat Analilia Mejia is favored to win, Roll Call’s Nick Eskow reports.  

Golden State special: California Gov. Gavin Newsom has set the date for a special election to fill Swalwell’s remaining term. If no candidate takes more than 50 percent of the vote in the June 16 all-party primary, the top two finishers will face off in an Aug. 18 runoff. 

RIP: Former New York Rep. Eliot L. Engel, who chaired the Foreign Affairs Committee, has died at age 79. As Eskow writes, the Democrat was a longtime fixture in New York politics until he lost a high-profile primary in 2020.

ICYMI

Tragedy in Va.: Police have confirmed that former Virginia Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax and his wife, Cerina, were found dead Thursday morning in an apparent murder-suicide, The Washington Post reports. 

‘Complete and total’: Trump has thrown his support behind several Republicans in key House races, including Eric Conroy in Ohio’s 1st District, Brinker Harding in Nebraska’s 2nd, Greg Cunningham in New Mexico’s 2nd, John Braun in Washington’s 3rd, Carrie Buck in Nevada’s 1st, Marty O’Donnell in Nevada’s 3rd and Jim Desmond in California’s 48th.

Dem endorsements: New York Gov. Kathy Hochul has endorsed state Rep. Micah Lasher, her onetime staffer, in the crowded Democratic primary for the open 12th District. The political arm of Planned Parenthood is backing Maine Gov. Janet Mills and Illinois Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton in their respective Senate races. And EMILY’s List is supporting surgeon Ala Stanford in the Democratic primary for Pennsylvania’s open 3rd District. 

#NY04: Former New York Rep. Anthony D’Esposito opted against a House comeback bid, leaving Republicans on Long Island to rally around Jeanine Driscoll, the Hempstead receiver of taxes, to challenge freshman Democratic Rep. Laura Gillen in the 4th District. 

Dropping out: Tyler Kistner, the Republican who challenged Minnesota Rep. Angie Craig in 2020 and 2022, dropped his bid for the GOP nomination to succeed her in the 2nd District, saying he had been activated by the Marine Reserves and would deploy again to the Middle East. His departure leaves state Sen. Eric Pratt as the sole Republican in the race. 

Also dropping out: Democratic state Sen. Jonathan Windy Boy is giving up his run for Montana’s deep-red 2nd District, state Democratic Party Chair Shannon O’Brien told ABC FOX Montana following allegations that he sent sexually explicit messages to a teen.

Special session delayed: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has pushed to April 28 a legislative special session that will in part focus on redrawing the state’s congressional map. State lawmakers were initially meant to convene next week.

Nathan’s notes

House Republicans had a dismal midterm election during Trump’s first term, losing more than 40 seats in 2018. But their Senate counterparts bucked the trend that year and gained two seats. Roll Call elections analyst Nathan L. Gonzales of Inside Elections explores whether Senate Republicans can defy history again this November. 

What we’re reading

Swalwell fallout: Politico examines the role social media influencers played in exposing former Rep. Eric Swalwell’s pattern of alleged abuse. And The New York Times looks at how Swalwell, a media-savvy Democrat with a national platform but few connections to state government leaders, emerged as a front-runner for California governor – but was quickly jettisoned after he was accused of sexual assault.

From Helms to Trump: Stylistically, former North Carolina Sen. Jesse Helms would seem to have little in common with the brash New York native who was twice elected president this century. But author William Link explores the political connections between the two men – including an embrace of populist rhetoric – in his new book, “Jesse Helms: Modern Conservatism and the Politics of Opposition,” an excerpt of which was published in The Assembly.

A country for old men: The Atlantic offers up a dispatch from the gerontocracy that dominates politics in America.

The count: $10 million

That’s how much former Maryland Rep. David Trone has put into his comeback bid so far, new federal filings show – $5 million in December and another $5 million during the first quarter of 2026. Trone is challenging his House successor, Rep. April McClain Delaney, in the Democratic primary for the 6th District. 

Trone is no stranger to self-funding. He’s poured more than $90 million of his own money into his past campaigns, including more than $62 million into his unsuccessful Senate bid in 2024. 

Still, Trone was not the top self-funder for this year’s first fundraising quarter. Republican businessman Keith Gross reported loaning $5.5 million to his campaign for Florida’s open 2nd District. Tech executive Peter Chatzky made a similar quarterly loan to his campaign for New York’s 17th District before he dropped out of the Democratic primary last week. 

– By Roll Call’s Andrew Menezes

Key race: #KY06

Candidates: The open seat centered on Lexington has drawn a bipartisan crowd of contenders seeking to succeed Republican Andy Barr, who is running for Senate. The top GOP candidates are state Rep. Ryan Dotson and physician and former state Sen. Ralph Alvarado. The Democratic field includes Navy veteran and former federal prosecutor Zach Dembo, former state Rep. Cherlynn Stevenson, former Lexington City Councilmember David Kloiber and progressive Erin Petrey. 

Why it matters: The district hasn’t elected a Democrat to Congress since 2010, but the party is hopeful this reddish swath of the Bluegrass State will flip in November. The DCCC added the seat to its “Districts in Play” target list, citing Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear’s double-digit margin of victory in the district in 2023. Democrat Amy McGrath came within 3 points of dislodging Barr in 2018, when the district’s boundaries were more favorable for Democrats. But since then, Barr has rolled to reelection, winning his 2024 race by 26 points.

Cash dash: Dotson raised $100,000 over the first three months of the year and had $296,000 on hand on March 31, while Alvarado collected $213,000 and had $552,000 banked. Another Republican contender, retired pharmaceutical executive Greg Plucinski, loaned his campaign $200,000 and ended the quarter with $231,000 banked. Among Democrats, Dembo raised $283,000 in the first quarter and had $457,000 on hand. Stevenson raised $118,000 and had $116,000 in her campaign account. 

Notable backers: Alvarado, the losing GOP nominee for lieutenant governor in 2019 who later served as Tennessee’s health commissioner, has the backing of Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Stevenson has the support of EMILY’s List, Elect Democratic Women and gun safety group Moms Demand Action. Dembo was endorsed by VoteVets and New Politics, which supports Democrats with public service backgrounds. 

What they’re saying: Dotson has highlighted his role as the primary sponsor of state legislation that bars transgender athletes from participating in women’s sports. He also pledged to seek congressional hearings into the government’s response to the COVID-19 crisis. Alvarado emphasizes his longtime support of Trump, including speaking on the president’s behalf at the 2016 Republican National Convention. “I stood with President Trump every single time,’’ the self-described “MAHA doctor” says in a recent campaign video.

On the Democratic side, Dembo, a onetime Beshear adviser, is running on an anticorruption message. In his launch video, he says he resigned from his position at the Justice Department because he couldn’t stand by “while this administration abused the Department of Justice for personal political gain.” Stevenson calls herself a “Mountain Democrat” who will champion rural communities and work across the aisle to address health care cuts, the impact of Trump’s tariff policies and affordability concerns. Kloiber’s agenda focuses on addressing housing costs and providing tax incentives to businesses that pay their employees a “living wage.”

Terrain: The district covers a broad swath of the center of the state, including the University of Kentucky’s flagship campus in Lexington. Trump carried the seat by 15 points in 2024, according to calculations by Inside Elections, which currently rates the race Solid Republican.

Wild card: McGrath, the losing Democratic nominee from 2018, is on the ballot again this year: She’s one of several Democrats competing for the Senate seat retiring Republican Mitch McConnell is vacating.

Coming up

While special elections in New Jersey and Virginia loom, candidates in battleground Michigan face a Tuesday filing deadline to qualify for the Aug. 4 primaries. In recent cycles, several candidates in the Wolverine State have been disqualified for not turning in sufficient valid signatures with their nominating petitions. Michigan is playing host to a competitive Senate race and several key House contests this fall. 

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