On the heels of an anonymously sourced article in Politico Thursday morning that East Bay Rep. Eric Swalwell is indeed running for president, came an unequivocal response from the newly re-elected congressman. “I’m absolutely looking at a 2020 presidential run,” Swalwell said on Fox News.

Speculation over Swalwell’s interest in mounting a 2020 presidential primary campaign had been simmering ever since President Donald Trump was elected in 2016. But within the past year, but in recent months has reached a fever pitch. Swalwell has also done little to quell the speculation.

The comments with Neil Cavuto of Fox News Thursday is the clearest indication yet of his intentions to run in what is expected to be a very large field of prospective candidates for the Democratic nomination. Swalwell added, he will discuss the matter with his family over the holidays.

The list of East Bay presidential candidates is relatively short. Among them Alameda County District Attorney and Gov. Earl Warren in 1952; and Gov. Jerry Brown in 1976, 1980, and 1992. U.S. Sen. William Knowland mulled a run for the Republican nomination in 1956 before President Dwight Eisenhower decided to run for re-election.

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