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SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) — With California’s primary election weeks away, gubernatorial candidate Eric Swalwell on Tuesday denied accusations of inappropriate behavior with female staffers, responding publicly for the first time since the claims surfaced.
Swalwell addressed the allegations during a town hall event in Sacramento on Tuesday night, answering reporters’ questions following reports by Politico.
When asked if he’s ever behaved inappropriately with female staffers, Swalwell responded, “No, no, it’s false. And also some of the allegations I’ve seen, which is that we’ve had NDAs in the office, and never, there’s never been an allegation and there’s never been a settlement. And I will also just take stock that we’re 27 days before an election starts.”
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Politico reports that the accusations originated from multiple left-leaning influencers and other social media accounts without evidence.
His campaign had previously denied the claims, saying Swalwell was being targeted because he is a frontrunner in the race for governor.
Swalwell said he decided to respond publicly to the allegations because he did not want there to be any question about his conduct as the primary approaches.
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The development comes as new survey results from the state Democratic Party show Swalwell leading the field of Democratic candidates. In recent public polls, he has been in a statistical tie with fellow candidates Tom Steyer and Katie Porter.
Ballots for the June 2 primary are scheduled to be mailed no later than May 4. Under California’s election system, the top two vote-getters in the primary – regardless of party affiliation – will advance to the general election in November.
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