According to a recent analysis of FEC filings from 2019–2025, Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA), now running for California governor, reimbursed himself over $200,000 from his congressional campaign for childcare expenses, which have been deemed permissible under 2018 and 2022 FEC opinions for costs tied to campaign activity.
These massive sums include $102,000+ to provider Amanda Barbosa, $57,324 to D.C.’s Bambini daycare, and recent payments to his wife, Brittany Swalwell, totaling over $6,000 for October–December 2025. Reacting to the situation, Heritage Foundation expert Allen Mendenhall criticizes it as subsidizing “inherently personal” costs via donors, risking a “slippery slope” that creates a privileged political class and undermines campaign finance integrity.
Breaking down the allegations, Allen Mendenhall, a research fellow at the Heritage Foundation’s Thomas A. Roe Institute for Economic Policy Studies and senior advisor at Capital Markets Initiative, dug into the details of the shady situation. “It’s an expense that candidates with young children will incur regardless of whether they’re in a campaign. I have childcare costs. Many people have childcare costs, and we can’t just use this other money to subsidize our things,” he explained.
Building on this point, Mendenhall argued that this new FEC decision risks setting a precedent that allows candidates to pass off their childcare costs to donors. Additionally, he believes this “opens the slippery slope” to a range of costs that could be justified as campaign expenses, including clothing, grooming, and other expenses.
“The danger here is creating a special class of politicians who are insulated from normal constraints, ordinary constraints that everybody else has to deal with,” the Heritage fellow pointed out, explaining the issues with the ruling. Wrapping up his comments, he noted, “Campaign law exists not to underwrite the private lives of politicians, but to ensure that political speech is protected and that public advocacy occurs, that we have electoral competition. Election laws are in place to try to maintain the integrity of our electoral system, and that decision, I think, undermines the integrity of the system.”
For context, the FEC stated, “Congressman Swalwell asked whether he could use campaign funds to pay for overnight childcare if he travels for campaign events for his campaign or other campaigns, if his spouse is not available to care for the children; and whether the committee can pay for childcare expenses, including overnight, for Congressman’s Swalwell’s children if he travels at the request of foreign governments or other entities because of his status as a congressman.”
“The Act and Commission regulations do not expressly address childcare expenses. In Advisory Opinions 2018-06 and 2019-13, the Commission determined that candidates could use campaign funds to pay childcare expenses to the extent the expenses were a “direct result of campaign activity” as these expenses would not have existed irrespective of the candidates’ campaigns,” the document added.
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Providing a conclusion, the FEC ruled, “Consistent with those precedents, the Commission determined Congressman Swalwell may use campaign funds to pay for overnight childcare for his campaign events if his spouse is not available to care for their children, because the expenses would not exist irrespective of Congressman Swalwell’s campaign.”
Watch Swalwell get totally roasted by a heckler during a town hall disaster: