Swalwell returned to California after law school and worked as a deputy district attorney in Alameda County.

He was a candidate in the 2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries from April to July 2019 before dropping out and endorsing Joe Biden.

[2][7] Swalwell then transferred to the University of Maryland, College Park, where he received a Bachelor of Arts in government and politics in 2003.

[12] After graduating from law school, Swalwell returned to California and worked as a deputy district attorney in Alameda County.

[13] While he was running for the U.S. Congress, an anonymous group attempted to recall Swalwell from the city council,[14][15] but the effort was later abandoned.

[2] Swalwell was able to contest Stark in the general election because of California's "top two" primary system put in place by Proposition 14.

In response, Swalwell organized a mock debate with an actor playing Stark, quoting him verbatim when answering the moderator.

[25] Swalwell was challenged by Republican Hugh Bussell, a senior manager at Workday, Inc., and by Democratic State Senate Majority Leader Ellen Corbett of Hayward.

In April 2016, The Hill dubbed him "the Snapchat king of Congress",[33] and he used Facebook Live and Periscope to broadcast House Democrats' gun-violence sit-in in June 2016.

Soon after taking office, Swalwell helped establish the United Solutions Caucus, a bipartisan group of freshman House members who met regularly to discuss areas of agreement.

"[39] Swalwell defended the action, saying, "We operate under rules that were created in the 18th century, and I think it's time that the Congress start to act more like regular Americans do.

[40] The bill allowed Americans to deduct from their 2013 taxes any charitable donations made between January 1 and April 15, 2014, for the relief of victims in the Republic of the Philippines of Typhoon Haiyan.

[41] Swalwell said, "Typhoon Haiyan devastated many parts of the Philippines and we should make it as easy as possible for Americans who want to assist those affected by the storm.

In April 2015, Swalwell founded Future Forum,[46] a group of young House Democrats focused on the concerns of millennials.

A year later, Swalwell said that in the meetings the groups had held at places like college campuses and startups, participants had brought up student loan debt as their most pressing concern.

[47] In May 2015, Swalwell and Representative Darrell Issa launched the bipartisan Sharing Economy Caucus[48] to explore how this burgeoning new economic sector can benefit more Americans.

In December 2016, Swalwell was named the co-chair of House Democratic Steering Committee, replacing Donna Edwards[50] and serving with Rosa DeLauro.

In December 2016, Swalwell and Representative Elijah Cummings introduced the Protecting Our Democracy Act,[54] which would create an independent, bipartisan commission to investigate foreign interference in the 2016 election.

Swalwell's bill attracted support along strictly partisan lines, except for two Republicans, and ultimately failed to reach a vote in the United States House Committee on Foreign Affairs.

Given Swalwell's position on the House Intelligence Committee, he played a role in investigating the links between Trump associates and Russian officials during his third term, saying, "It's always smelled like collusion.

Axios reported that Swalwell was not accused of any impropriety and that officials did not believe that Fang obtained classified information from her contacts.

[64] Also in December 2020, the San Francisco Chronicle quoted an unnamed FBI official familiar with the investigation as saying that "Swalwell was completely cooperative and under no suspicion of wrongdoing".

[90] He has proposed the idea of a "mobile Congress", with members casting votes remotely while spending more time in their districts.

He said he would attempt to raise the cap on the Social Security payroll tax (which applies to annual earnings only up to $110,000 as of 2012[update]), so that wealthier Americans would pay more into the program.

[94] Swalwell opposed the overturning of Roe v. Wade in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization and called it "an attack on everyone's freedom" and "government-mandated pregnancy".

[95] In 2022, Swalwell was one of 16 Democrats to vote against the Merger Filing Fee Modernization Act of 2022, an antitrust package that would crack down on corporations for anti-competitive behavior.

[100] In March 2022, Swalwell proposed the following measures in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine on CNN: "Frankly, I think closing their embassy in the United States, kicking every Russian student out of the United States, those should all be on the table, and Putin needs to know that every day that he is in Ukraine, there are more severe options that could come.

[106][107][108][109] Others proposed expelling only those students who are part of the Russian ruling elite's families that espouse anti-Western rhetoric while sending their children to live there.

He married his second wife, Brittany Ann Watts, a sales director at the Ritz-Carlton in Half Moon Bay, in October 2016.