California gubernatorial candidate Tom Steyer on Friday mocked fellow Democratic candidate Rep. Eric Swalwell (Calif.) in a campaign ad for missing House votes.
“Call me old-fashioned, but you typically need to show up to work to get a promotion,” Steyer wrote on a post on the social platform X.
The post included a video of Swalwell swimming and lifting weights at a gym, saying throughout the video, “I should be working right now,” “I should be at the Capitol,” “I should be in Congress” and “I should be in a suit.”
The pool clips were taken from a video that Swalwell released after House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) sent lawmakers home early for summer recess, which the California Democrat said was an effort to avoid a vote on the Epstein files.
“Eric Swalwell’s job is to vote in Congress,” text spliced between the footage of Swalwell reads. “In 2025, Eric Swalwell missed 95 votes. That’s more than Rep. Raul Grijalva missed. Rep. Grijalva died in March of 2025. Since declaring for governor, Eric Swalwell has missed 68 percent of the votes it’s his job to take.”
“He hasn’t been showing up to work, and now he’s asking for a promotion,” the text continues.
The Hill reached out to Swalwell’s campaign for comment.
Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.), who served as Swalwell’s national campaign chairman during his 2020 presidential campaign, knocked Steyer for the video.
“Tom, while you were sitting in your $30 million house on Jan 6, Eric Swalwell was with me on the floor of the House — fighting to save our Democracy from a mob,” Gallego wrote on X. “If you want to know why people don’t like Billionaires, it’s crap like this.”
Data from the nonpartisan Congress-tracking website GovTrack shows that Swalwell missed 102 of 139, or 73 percent, of roll call votes between Sept. 19, 2025, and Feb. 9, 2026.
Swalwell announced his run for governor in November. He pitched himself on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” as a “fighter and protector” who will raise Californians’ standard of living and stand up to President Trump.
“Someone who will bring prices down, lift wages up,” he told host Jimmy 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? So, I’ve been in these fights as a city council member up in Dublin, my hometown, as a prosecutor in Oakland, and taking on the most corrupt president ever in the U.S. Congress.”
Swalwell and Steyer, a billionaire and former presidential candidate himself, are in a crowded field to succeed term-limited Gov. Gavin Newsom (D). Other Democratic candidates include former Rep. Katie Porter (D-Calif.), former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa (D), former Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra and state Superintendent of Public Education Tony Thurmond.
Republican candidates include Fox News commentator Steve Hilton and Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco.
