Swalwell Discusses Challenges Facing California

In a revealing interview that aired Friday on CNN’s The Story Is, California gubernatorial candidate Rep. Eric Swalwell confronted—albeit cautiously—the economic headwinds buffeting the Golden State.

With California grappling with the highest housing costs in the nation, skyrocketing gas prices, rampant homelessness, and the worst unemployment rate in the country, Swalwell attempted to pivot toward forward-looking solutions. Yet what emerged from the conversation was less a blueprint and more a political balancing act.

Pressed by host Elex Michaelson on whether California’s Democratic leadership bears responsibility for the state’s deeply rooted affordability crisis, Swalwell deflected. Instead of naming names or assigning blame, he focused on future plans and national inflation trends. “We are suffering inflation across the country,” he offered—an answer that sidestepped the inconvenient truth that many of California’s cost pressures long predate the recent inflationary wave.

Swalwell’s diagnosis of the state’s economic woes was blunt, at least in part. He acknowledged California’s highest-in-the-nation unemployment rate and a troubling lack of small business creation. To counter that, he floated a bold initiative: a tax holiday for new small businesses during their first three years. The goal? Spur job creation, stimulate intra-business commerce, and reestablish California as a haven for entrepreneurs.

But the solutions didn’t stop there. If elected governor, Swalwell vowed to declare a statewide housing emergency on day one—a move aimed at accelerating project approvals by forcing agencies to make decisions within 90 days. That declaration would temporarily override CEQA, California’s notoriously cumbersome environmental review law, and signal a shift toward pro-development policies. Longer-term CEQA reform, he added, is also on the table.

Swalwell painted a picture of a more business-friendly, digitally agile California. He pledged to make the state “the easiest place to film,” hinting at new tax incentives for the entertainment industry.

He called for expanded public-private partnerships, additional rights for families battling homelessness, and even a modernization of the DMV—a bureaucratic overhaul that countless Californians would likely welcome.

He also diverged from the state’s prevailing green orthodoxy by saying he doesn’t want oil refineries to leave California. His call for an “all-of-the-above” energy policy signals a more moderate, perhaps pragmatic, tone than is typical of the state’s dominant political class.

Yet beneath the proposals and promises lies a question that Swalwell never quite answered: how did California get here in the first place? And does leadership bear any responsibility for it?