Rep. Swalwell is facing calls for expulsion. Here’s how it would work.

A Crash Course in congressional expulsions.

Over the weekend, allegations of sexual assault came pouring in against Representative and CA gubernatorial candidate Eric Swalwell. His House colleague Rep. Tony Gonzales has faced intense backlash over an affair with one of his staffers who later committed suicide, and has since announced he will not seek reelection (but only after not winning his reelection primary)..

The allegations have sparked a wave of calls for accountability—and in some corners, demands that both members be removed from office.

Which raises an important question: Can Congress remove one of its own?

The answer is yes.

But, historically at least, it almost never happens.

Photo: Rich Pedroncelli/AP

The Congressional Menu of Punishment

Congress has a range of tools to discipline its own members. Think of it as a sliding scale:

1. Internal political pressure

• Party leaders push a member to resign

• Loss of committee assignments

• Political isolation

2. Reprimand

• Formal statement of disapproval

• No lasting penalties

3. Censure

• Public condemnation on the House or Senate floor

• Member must stand and hear the resolution read

• More serious—but still largely symbolic beyond the public rebuke

4. Expulsion

• The nuclear option

• Removes the member from office entirely

• Requires a two-thirds vote in the chamber of the offending party.

• That means 67 senators or 290 House members

• Senators can’t expel a House member, and Reps. can’t expel a Senator

The Short List of Expulsions

The House has expelled just 6 Representatives in U.S. history. The most recent expelled member was Rep. George Santos in 2023 for fraud and misuse of campaign funds (in addition to his infinity lies).

The Senate has expelled 15 Senators in its history. The last one was in 1862.

And 17 of those 21 total expulsions happened during the Civil War, when members were removed for supporting the Confederacy.

Outside of the Civil War, expulsion is almost unheard of, and let’s just say there has been plenty of congressional wrongdoing since.

What Usually Happens When a Member Is Accused

This is where expectations and reality diverge.

Calls for expulsion often follow allegations. But Congress almost never acts on allegations alone.

Instead, the typical path looks like this:

• Allegations are made

• Ethics Committee investigations—where members investigate their own colleague

• Political pressure to resign comes from leaders, fellow members, the media, and voters

• Recognizing their circumstances and lack of support, the lawmaker resigns before any formal punishment OR

• The lawmaker stays until the next election, letting voters have the final say on if they return at or not

Only in the rarest of cases is there a vote for expulsion.

Could These Cases Be Different?

This is where things get less theoretical.

For expulsion to even be on the table, two things typically have to happen:

1. Sustained political pressure — not just a news cycle, but ongoing attention from leadership, media, and voters

2. Credible, substantiated findings — typically from the Ethics Committee or outside investigations

But here’s the key wrinkle: An investigation isn’t required.

Any member can introduce a resolution to expel a colleague, and the chamber can vote on it at any time.

The Ethics Committee process is the norm—not the rule.

And in a hyper-polarized Congress, that distinction matters.

If political pressure builds quickly enough, members could force a vote before an investigation is complete—or even begins.

Right now, the cases involving Eric Swalwell and Tony Gonzales are still in the early stages.

There’s clearly momentum—calls for accountability are growing, and the allegations are serious enough to keep this in the headlines.

But momentum alone doesn’t translate into expulsion.

To actually succeed, you would still need:

• Enough members willing to go on record without a fully developed investigative record (which would create a new precedent for future congresses)

• And most importantly, bipartisan support reaching a two-thirds vote

That last part may be the barrier.

Even in the most recent case—George Santos—it took months of investigation, detailed ethics findings, and criminal charges to build enough support.

So yes, today’s political environment makes it easier to call for a vote.

But history suggests it’s still extremely hard to win one.

Bottom Line

The power exists. The precedent does too.

But the threshold is high, the process is slow, and the votes are hard to get (usually).

So when the next scandal hits and calls for removal start flying, remember:

In Congress, the default isn’t “kick them out.”

It’s “prove it—or let voters decide.”

And history shows, that bar is almost never cleared.