A woman from Southern California stood before reporters Tuesday and accused former Democratic Congressman Eric Swalwell of violently raping and strangling her during an encounter in 2018 — allegations that arrive as the ex-lawmaker’s political life has disintegrated around him.
Lonna Drewes delivered the accusations at a press conference, speaking in stark, direct terms that left little room for ambiguity.
“He raped me, and he choked me,” Drewes said, in remarks that circulated widely on the platform X.
She told those assembled that the violence escalated beyond the assault itself.
“And while he was choking me, I lost consciousness,” she said. “And I thought I died.”
Drewes did not mince words when describing the nature of the encounter.
“I did not consent to any sexual activity,” she stated plainly.
Though no rape kit was collected in the immediate aftermath, Drewes said she did not suffer in total silence. She turned to those closest to her and disclosed what had happened, and she memorialized the events in her own handwriting inside a personal calendar she kept at the time.
The documentation extended beyond her private circle. “The assault and its impact were later documented during my therapy sessions at a sexual assault center in Connecticut,” Drewes said — establishing a professional record of both the incident and its aftermath.
The psychological damage, she said, rewired her daily existence for years following the alleged attack.
“I did not want to live anymore,” Drewes said. “I cried all the time for years.”
She also addressed what the alleged assault cost her emotionally and personally, describing how the experience drove her toward self-destructive coping.
The assault, she said, “had a profound impact on my mental health,” and she acknowledged that she “self-medicated in an unhealthy way” in the years that followed.
Drewes pushed back firmly against any suggestion the encounter could have been mutual. At the time, she was in a committed, exclusive relationship — one in which she had never been unfaithful.
“I’ve never cheated in my life,” she said. “And I would never have engaged in a consensual sexual encounter with Eric Swalwell.”
The San Francisco Chronicle reported that Drewes described crossing paths with Swalwell on three separate occasions in 2018.
The third meeting is when she says things went wrong. She alleged that her drink was tampered with that night, leaving her severely intoxicated after consuming just a single glass of wine.
Once she was in that compromised state, she said, Swalwell brought her to his hotel room in West Hollywood — and that is where the assault took place.
Drewes announced she intends to bring the matter to law enforcement, with plans to submit a police report to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Office, a step that moves the allegations from the public arena into the criminal justice system.
Her account stands as the gravest and most detailed among a surge of accusations that has hit Swalwell in recent weeks.
The allegations did not emerge in isolation — multiple other women have stepped forward in that same window of time, each describing what they characterized as a consistent pattern of predatory sexual conduct by the former congressman.
Swalwell has denied all of the allegations made against him.
Republican Congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna escalated the situation further on Monday, appearing on Fox News with host Jesse Watters to suggest that Swalwell’s alleged misconduct may have extended beyond adult women to include a minor.
Luna’s appearance on national television added a new and more alarming dimension to an already serious set of accusations bearing down on the former congressman.
Hours after Luna spoke, Swalwell announced his resignation from Congress — a swift and striking exit that came just one day after he had already suspended his bid for the California governorship.
The back-to-back collapses — first the governor’s race, then his congressional seat — mark a stunning fall for a politician who had spent years positioning himself as a prominent national voice within the Democratic Party.
