California Congressman Eric Swalwell has become the 18th Democrat to announce he is running for President during an appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.
Swalwell, 38, was first elected to Congress in 2012. He has a little over half a million followers on Twitter. A decent following, but well shy of the nearly 3 million followers of freshman Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
I'm not sure why Swalwell decided to announce on Colbert. It didn't exactly do wonders for Kirsten Gillibrand. Swalwell is also focusing his campaign on gun control. But it's not like he stands out significantly from any of his Democratic opponents on that issue. What's more his district is just outside of San Francisco and methinks that Kamala Harris has that state pretty much wrapped around her finger and given her history as a DA and the state Attorney General, she also outflanks him on the gun control issue.
Swalwell has a pretty good record on Israel. Good enough that he drew the ire of local Palestinian activists during the Israel-Gaza war in 2014. The question is will he distance himself from his past position to curry favor with so-called progressives on Israel. While I don't think he'll go all Beto and call Benjamin Netanyahu a racist, I don't think he'll go out of his way to be so vocal in his support of Israel.
Even if Swalwell concentrates his efforts on gun control, he chances of winning the Democratic Party nomination are more than a long shot.
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