Analysis by WorldTribune Staff, January 19, 2026 Real World News

To be elected governor of California a candidate must meet the following requirements:

Must be a United States citizen.

Must be over age 18.

Must have lived in California for at least five years before the election.

On the Nov. 20, 2025 broadcast of Jimmy Kimmel Live!, California Democrat Rep. Eric Swalwell announced he would run for governor in 2026 to replace the term-limited Gavin Newsom.

Does Swalwell meet the above criteria?

He is a U.S. citizen (though he has a taste for Chinese Communist Party-aligned honeypots.)

He is over age 18 (at least chronologically.)

Has he been a resident of California for five years?

That’s where things get interesting.

A new lawsuit filed by conservative activist and filmmaker Joel Gilbert claims the “home address” listed on Swalwell’s election paperwork is actually a lawyers’ office in a mall.

Gilbert says Swalwell’s actual home is a $1.2 million, six-bedroom mansion in Washington, DC.

According to the lawsuit, the DC property was listed as Swalwell and his wife’s “principal residence” when they took out a mortgage in April 2022.

“Eric Swalwell has no California address,” Gilbert told the Daily Mail in a Jan. 18 report.

Swalwell does not appear to own any property in California at all, Gilbert claims in his five-page petition for writ of mandate filed with California Secretary of State Shirley Weber.

The California Constitution, Article V, Section 2, states that an individual is eligible to be governor only if the person is “a citizen of the United States and a resident of this State for 5 years immediately preceding the Governor’s election.”

Under California law, “resident” does not simply mean where one receives mail or even owns property. It means “domicile,” one’s true, fixed, permanent home. California Elections Code §349 makes this point absolutely clear: “A domicile is the place where a person’s habitation is fixed and where they have the intention of remaining.” And, “At a given time, a person may have only one domicile.”

Gilbert accuses the Democrat congressman of perjury and urges Weber to declare him ineligible to succeed Newsom in this November’s election.

“So either he’s guilty of mortgage fraud in Washington, DC, or he’s ineligible to run for governor of California, he can’t have it both ways,” Gilbert said.

Swalwell has represented the San Francisco Bay Area in Congress since 2012. On the seven occasions he’s run for Congress, he has designated Dublin, California as his home, according to Federal Election Commission records.

He gave the address of a two-bed house in 2011 and 2013 before switching to a PO box which he was still using when he was last elected in 2024 – two years after signing his Washington, DC mortgage.

“Congressional candidates don’t have to live in the specific district they represent but they do have to live in the same state,” Gilbert pointed out to the Daily Mail.

Swalwell filed a California Form 501 – Candidate Intention Statement – on Dec. 4, 2025, giving his address as a business suite in a Capitol Mall, Sacramento, high-rise.

“That address is not a residence. It is the office address of Swalwell’s campaign attorneys,” Gilbert said.

“Form 501 is signed under penalty of perjury, and the use of a non-residential address constitutes a material representation in a filing required to establish candidate qualifications,” Gilbert added.

The lawsuit asks Weber to “fulfill her constitutional duty” by disqualifying Swalwell from a crowded field that includes Democrat Congresswoman Katie Porter, former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, and conservative commentator Steve Hilton.

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