In late October, Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., posted a video of himself on Facebook criticizing anonymous masked Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents for swarming a woman in a Wal-Mart parking lot, peppering her with questions about where she was born.

“These masked bandits, and that’s what they are, they’re running around like they’re invincible,” Swalwell said into the camera, wearing a “No Kings” protest baseball cap. “Accountability is coming.”

He’s rarely been seen in Washington, D.C., since, and missed a related hearing last week when Democrats criticized ICE’s heavy-handed tactics.

Swalwell has not cast a vote in the House of Representatives since announcing his campaign late last month to succeed Gavin Newsom as the next governor of California in 2026.

After the federal shutdown ended Nov. 12, Congress returned to the capital and has begun trying to hammer out an agreement to keep Affordable Care Act subsidies from lapsing. On Thursday, he was the only member of the California congressional delegation to not vote on a resolution to impeach President Donald Trump.

Swalwell, 45, has represented the East Bay in Congress since 2013. He served as one of the top Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee during the Russia-Trump collusion investigation, and helped manage Trump’s second impeachment trial in 2021, earning him headlines as a major White House critic.

He has the spottiest attendance record of any of the current California congressional delegation’s 52 members, according to a review of House voting records and the nonpartisan website GovTrack, which aggregates congressional data.

Swalwell has missed more than 550 votes out of 7,253 since joining Congress, or 7.7%, according to a review of his congressional record and GovTrack. The average House member misses 2.1% of votes, GovTrack says.

Neither his campaign nor his congressional office responded to repeated requests for comment.

Swalwell has not cast a vote in Congress since Nov. 19, the day before he announced on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” that he would run for California governor in the June 2, 2026 primary. Hotel magnate Stephen Cloobeck suspended his own gubernatorial campaign and immediately endorsed Swalwell.

While a plurality of Californians remain undecided about whom to vote for in the 2026 race, Swalwell is leading the pack of Democratic contenders with 12% support, according to a recent Emerson College poll. Former Rep. Katie Porter follows closely behind with 11% support, while the rest of the declared Democratic candidates are polling in single digits.

Swalwell missed five House votes last Wednesday alone, including one advancing the “Protect America’s Workforce Act,” which nullifies a Trump executive order stripping federal workers of their union rights to collectively bargain.

He also missed the final House vote on the $900 billion National Defense Authorization Act, which has become a vehicle for Republicans to try and pass provisions like banning federal funds for abortions and gender-affirming health care, and banning transgender women from playing on sports teams at military academies.

Out of the 51 other members of the California delegation, only Rep. Kevin Mullin, D-South San Francisco, has come close to matching Swalwell’s absentee record since he joined the House in 2022.

Previous contenders for higher office have come under fire for missing congressional votes. In 2007, CNN reported that Barack Obama did not show up for 75% of Senate votes as he campaigned for president.

Kamala Harris caught criticism for missing votes as she campaigned for president in 2019, a race Swalwell also briefly was a part of. He missed almost a quarter of votes, according to the San Francisco Chronicle, including a June 2019 vote passing a $19.1 billion disaster relief aid package for Camp Fire victims and one to provide a pathway to citizenship for DACA recipients, Temporary Protected Status recipients, and others with immigration status.

The latter bill, the American Dream and Promise Act of 2019, failed to pass the House. That day, Swalwell appeared on “The View” to promote his gun control platform. A month later, he dropped out of the 2020 presidential race.

On Thursday, Swalwell was absent as other members of his party hyped themselves online for grilling Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem during a contentious hearing about ICE officers’ aggressive enforcement tactics. Noem left the hearing early, and is now facing a long-shot effort to force her resignation or impeachment.

Swalwell sits on the Homeland Security committee and is the ranking member of its subcommittee on cybersecurity and infrastructure. That day, he was in the East Bay speaking to the NAACP Oakland and Hayward chapters.

He has also positioned himself as an aggressive Trump critic, leading some of the president’s supporters to target him and his family with death threats. Last month, Swalwell sued the Federal Housing Finance Agency for targeting Democrats with mortgage fraud investigations, arguing that they are a form of illegal political retaliation and violate federal privacy laws.

Agency director Bill Pulte has referred Swalwell to the Department of Justice for potential similar fraud charges.

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