Eric Swalwell is eager to be seen as a serious contender in the race to succeed California Governor Gavin Newsom.

However, before embarking on his political journey, the U.S. Representative from the Bay Area was known as a campus activist with a penchant for writing provocative poetry, orchestrating outlandish pranks, and expressing support for controversial figures.

Exclusive student writings from Swalwell’s past, recently obtained by the Daily Mail, reveal a more radical side of his early years.

Among these documents is a striking poem from 2001, describing an intense encounter between two lovers whose passion leads their veins to “implode and explode” during a steamy hotel rendezvous.

In his college newspaper column, a young Swalwell also passionately defended Mumia Abu-Jamal, the former Black Panther serving a life sentence for the murder of a police officer.

This stance seems at odds with the narrative Swalwell has promoted during his 13 years in Congress, where he often highlights his pride in being the son of a police officer.

Democrat voters might also be curious to hear what the fledgling firebrand thought of their politics prior to representing them.

‘I’m not a Republican, nor am I a Democrat, is there really a difference besides an elephant and a donkey?’ sneered Swalwell in a March 2000 op-ed for The Campbell Times, the student newspaper for Campbell University in North Carolina.

California Rep. Eric Swalwell’s hidden college past as a radical who dabbled in erotic poetry, staged wacky pranks and sympathized with notorious cop killers is revealed through his own campus newspaper writings 

Swalwell is gunning for Governor Gavin Newsom’s job as he aims for the presidential seat 

A March 2000 op-ed for The Campbell Times shows Swalwell sneering at both Republicans and Democrats – mocking them as no different than an ‘elephant and a donkey’ and declaring his own party called the ‘Lost Cause’ 

He admitted that he didn’t vote in presidential elections and declared: ‘I belong to my own party; it’s called Lost Cause.’

The brash articles were dug out by conservative filmmaker Joel Gilbert who is on a one-man mission to derail Swalwell’s gubernatorial bid.

The Daily Mail previously revealed how Gilbert petitioned a Sacramento court to disqualify the seven-term lawmaker from November’s vote because he appears to reside full time in Washington, DC.

He points to a clause in the California Constitution that says candidates can only run for governor if they’ve lived in the Golden State for the previous five years.

Swalwell has dismissed the suit as ‘nonsense’ ahead of a March hearing, insisting he keeps his actual living arrangements secret because of death threats from MAGA fanatics.

While progressives have lauded his opposition to President Donald Trump, Republicans have ridiculed the married politician for his past entanglement with alleged Chinese honeytrap spy Christine Fang – known as Fang Fang.

Fang came to the US as a college student and spent years cultivating relationships with prominent California politicians, reportedly working on Swalwell’s 2014 re-election campaign before vanishing a year later.

The scandal broke in 2020 and cost the lawmaker his spot on the House Intelligence Committee, though a two-year standards probe resulted in no further action.

 Eric Swalwell married his wife Brittany in October 2016. The couple have three children

The writings were revealed by conservative filmmaker Joel Gilbert, who has been upfront about his mission to derail Swalwell’s gubernatorial bid

Swalwell came under fire for his past entanglement with alleged Chinese honeytrap spy Christine Fang – known as Fang Fang – who worked on his 2014 election campaign 

Fang Fang vanished a year after joining his campaign – and when their entanglement exploded into public view in 2020, it cost Swalwell his prized seat on the House Intelligence Committee

Less widely known is Swalwell’s youthful dalliance with campus radicalism while studying government and history at Campbell University, a private liberal arts college in Buies Creek, North Carolina, from 1999 to 2001.

An aspiring writer, he churned out several screenplays, wrote a column for The Campbell Times and contributed a risqué poem to the annual literary magazine, The Lyricist.

Hungover From Burgundy depicts two lovers meeting ‘atop’ a hotel before having ‘formless and magnificent’ sex in a ‘flurry of limbs and nails.’

The protagonist appears to derive intense sexual pleasure from being bitten on the arm.

‘While I screamed / She bent her lips to mine / Kissing till veins imploded and exploded / Till blood rolled down our chins / For bounded mouths cannot speak of parting.’

Swalwell was 19 when he penned the poem for an ENGL 412 creative writing class.

His spokesman laughed off the cringeworthy poetic effort. ‘If you think Eric’s poetry at 18 was bad, you should see his diary entries from when he was 12,’ he said.

But Gilbert, whose hit films include Trump: The Art of the Insult and The Trayvon Hoax: Unmasking the Witness Fraud that Divided America, said: ‘It’s disturbing how he eroticizes violence.

‘You have to wonder what Swalwell’s woke allies in the #MeToo movement would make of his flippant alignment of drunkenness, abuse and casual sex.’

During his time at Campbell University, Swalwell aspired to be a writer and submitted a risqué poem to the annual literary magazine The Lyricist, graphically depicting violent sex atop a hotel 

Gilbert further criticizes Swalwell’s December 1999 op-ed, US Political Prisoners: A Cry for Justice for siding with violent cop killers

In the article, he demanded the release of the former Black Panther Abu-Jamal who shot and killed Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner in 1981

He also demanded the release of Leonard Peltier, who was convicted of murdering two FBI agents during a 1975 shootout on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. His sentence was commuted by President Joe Biden in January 2025

Gilbert takes further issue with a December 1999 op-ed entitled US Political Prisoners: A Cry for Justice.

Swalwell – writing under his moniker ‘The Radically Poetic’ – used the article to demand the immediate release of former Black Panther Abu-Jamal and fellow killer Leonard Peltier.

Peltier, 81, was convicted of murdering two FBI agents during a 1975 shootout on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota.

He served two consecutive life terms until President Joe Biden commuted his punishment to indefinite house arrest in January 2025.

Abu-Jamal’s death sentence was overturned but the 71-year-old remains behind bars with no possibility of parole for the 1981 shooting of Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner.

‘America, it’s time to wake up,’ wrote Swalwell, launching into modish commentary about America’s systemically corrupt justice system.

He recommended clicking on the website of anti-capitalist rock band Rage Against The Machine for further reading.

‘I encourage everyone to research for themselves the stories of these prisoners and others who, at the very least, deserve a fair trial.’

In the cop killer article, Swalwell encouraged readers to click on the website of anti-capitalist rock band Rage Against The Machine for further reading

Swalwell’s time in office is a stark contrast to his college writings, often using his father’s police chief status as proof of his support for law enforcement

In another piece seen by the Daily Mail, Swalwell describes a chaotic Cancun escapade in which he says he used forged credentials and video equipment to pose as an MTV employee to get into clubs for free   

Fast forward to 2026 and Swalwell frequently references the fact his dad Eric Nelson Swalwell was the police chief of a small town in Iowa as proof of his support for law enforcement.

‘As the son of a cop, I know what our first responders face every day,’ he wrote on X Tuesday.

‘As governor, I’ll fund wildfire prevention, disaster response and protect the health and safety of those who risk their lives to keep us safe.’

Another curious column shared with the Daily Mail recounts Swalwell’s vacation to Cancun in the summer of 2000.

‘Before departing to this tropical utopia, my friends and I decided that as an innocuous prank we would try to convince everyone in Cancun that we were with MTV,’ wrote Swalwell.

The deception involved flying into Mexico with forged credentials, three video cameras and a microphone that wasn’t connected to anything.

‘We were admitted free into every club as well as granted unlimited food and drinks (non-alcoholic of course),’ Swalwell gloated.

‘At each club we performed a stage show, usually karaoke… one club asked a friend and me if we would be interested in being honorary guest judges in the largest swimsuit contest in Cancun.’

Swalwell announced in November that he’d be running for the governor’s seat

Swalwell is going against a crowded pool of candidates, including Democrat Congresswoman Katie Porter, former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and conservative commentator Steve Hilton

Defending it as a ‘classic example of a prank getting carried away’, the young scribe reflected: ‘No one was hurt and our dishonesty stayed on the other side of the border.’

Dad-of-three Swalwell announced his gubernatorial run in November, joining a crowded field that includes Democrat Congresswoman Katie Porter, former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and conservative commentator Steve Hilton.

‘This was a guy who glorified cop killers in college, bragged about rough sex and thought it was funny to lie to people,’ Gilbert told the Daily Mail.

‘The warning signs are all there: Eric Swalwell would be an absolute disaster as California Governor.’