House floor braces for expulsion votes
Plus: Jeffries hits Virginia to boost redistricting referendum and CBC-aligned PAC spends in key California race
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🚨 Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) suspended his campaign for governor of California on Sunday evening, two nights after a woman alleged in a bombshell report that Swalwell sexually assaulted her twice, including once in 2019 when she worked for him and again in 2024. Hours later, four women alleged sexual misconduct by Swalwell, including a former staffer who said he raped her.
“To my family, staff, friends, and supporters, I am deeply sorry for mistakes in judgment I’ve made in my past,” Swalwell said. “I will fight the serious, false allegations that have been made—but that’s my fight, not a campaign’s.”
Swalwell, as you’ll read below in First Things First, is under intense pressure from an ever-growing bipartisan group of House members to resign from Congress or face the possibility of expulsion.
📌 New this morning: House floor braces for expulsion votes … Jeffries hits Virginia to boost redistricting referendum … CBC-aligned PAC spends in key California race
📬 Get in touch: michael@onceuponahill.com
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FIRST THINGS FIRST
House floor braces for expulsion votes
The fallout from sexual assault allegations against Eric Swalwell is intensifying, with potential to disrupt not just his gubernatorial campaign but House floor activity this week.
House Republican leadership hopes to vote this week on an 18-month extension of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which permits the collection of communications of non-Americans abroad for counterterrorism, counterintelligence, and cybersecurity, along with three bills to roll back Clean Air Act regulations.
Meanwhile, Democrats are preparing to force votes requiring President Trump to withdraw from the war in Iran absent explicit congressional authorization or a clear case of imminent self-defense, and on legislation directing the Department of Homeland Security to designate Haiti for Temporary Protected Status through early 2029.
At the same time, the House has yet to pass the bipartisan Senate agreement to reopen all non-ICE and non-CBP DHS agencies, pushing the shutdown into its 58th day.
But Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) has said she will file expulsion resolutions against Swalwell and Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-Texas), who acknowledged last month that he had an affair with a staffer who later died by suicide.
Her move could set off a domino effect. Lawmakers may also weigh action against Rep. Cory Mills (R-Fla.), who is under an ethics investigation into allegations of fraud and misconduct, and Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D-Fla.), who was recently found guilty by the House Ethics Committee on multiple federal charges tied to FEMA funds and campaign finance violations.
A senior House Democratic aide had a simple response when I asked if they thought the floor would be consumed with expulsion votes: “No.”
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CAMPAIGNS
Jeffries hits Virginia to boost redistricting referendum
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) spent the weekend traveling across Virginia to get out the vote as residents decide in an April 21 referendum whether to amend the state constitution to allow mid-decade congressional redistricting—an action normally taken once every 10 years after the census.
If approved, the measure would empower the Democratic-controlled General Assembly to redraw the state’s congressional map now and use those new lines for upcoming elections. The change would be temporary, potentially netting Democrats up to four seats in the midterms. (The current bipartisan redistricting system would return after the 2030 census.)
The referendum is part of a broader national redistricting arms race, with Democrats arguing they are responding to GOP-led map redraws in states like Texas, North Carolina, Missouri and possibly Florida.
Republican-aligned opponents are targeting Black voters and accusing Richmond politicians of a power grab to rig maps and divide communities of color.
Jeffries attended two Black churches in the metropolitan Richmond area with Rep. Jennifer McClellan (D-Va.) on Sunday morning, followed by a canvass launch and rally in predominantly Black neighborhoods in the Richmond suburbs. They also hosted a roundtable with HBCU students from Virginia State University and Virginia Union University to educate young people about the referendum.
“They’re trying to confuse Black voters,” a person helping turn out voters for the referendum told me. “And we are using every tool at our disposal.”
On Saturday, Jeffries also joined a canvass kickoff hosted by the Charlottesville Democrats in Central Virginia and led a rally with Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) and hundreds of people in Charlottesville.
Polling on the referendum is tight and inconsistent, with surveys showing anything from slight support to slight opposition depending on wording.
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CAMPAIGNS
CBC-aligned PAC spends in key California race
Rolling Sea Action Fund—a PAC aligned with the Congressional Black Caucus—is spending $200,000 to boost Lauren Babb Tomlinson in California’s 6th Congressional District, according to a person familiar with the group’s plans.
The investment comes at a consequential moment for the caucus, which now has the largest membership in its 55-year history but faces mounting political pressure. CBC allies are defending incumbents drawn into more competitive terrain by Republican gerrymanders in Texas, North Carolina and Missouri, while also bracing for a potential Supreme Court ruling in Louisiana v. Callais that could weaken or eliminate Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. At the same time, some members have drawn primary challenges from the left, as seen in last month’s race involving Rep. Valerie Foushee (D-N.C.). But given the potential of a blue wave, CBC allies see the race as a key opportunity to elect a Black woman this cycle.
“This is a coordinated effort to dilute Black representation on multiple fronts,” the person familiar said. “We will forcefully protect and expand the progress our community has made.”
I first reported the investment last week while Congress Nerd was on hiatus.
Babb Tomlinson, a Planned Parenthood advocacy executive, could be the only Black woman competing in a top-tier House race this cycle. If she advances from California’s June jungle primary, she would likely face Rep. Kevin Kiley.
Kiley recently said he would run in the redrawn 6th District rather than seek re-election in his current seat, which is shedding Republican-leaning suburbs and exurbs in Placer County while taking in more Democratic-leaning areas from Sacramento and its inner suburbs. Those GOP-leaning areas will shift into neighboring districts, including the 4th. Kiley also changed his voter registration to independent while continuing to caucus with Republicans.
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HAPPENINGS
All times Eastern
Floor action
The House is out.
The Senate is in at 3 p.m. and will vote at 5:30 p.m. to limit debate on John Shepherd to be the U.S. District Judge for the Western District of Arkansas.
Committee hearings
The U.S. Helsinki Commission will receive a briefing at 2 p.m. on Vatican diplomacy in the age of estrangement, power politics and war.
News events
President Trump will participate in signing time at 2 p.m., a policy meeting at 4 p.m., a greeting with King Willem-Alexander and Queen Máxima Zorreguieta of the Netherlands at 7 p.m. and a dinner with the king and queen at 7:45 p.m.
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READ ALL ABOUT IT
“Donald Trump’s incompetence is costing him the country” by Matt Bai: “An unpopular war, skyrocketing gas prices, unsteady financial markets, a cabinet filled with sycophants—the president’s colossal missteps have led to calamity at home and abroad.”
“Am I too poor to have a baby?” by Sigal Samuel: “How society convinced us that childbearing is morally wrong without a fat budget.”
“The looming college-enrollment death spiral” by Jeffrey Selingo: “After many decades of democratization, higher education could once again become a luxury good.”