(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) California gubernatorial candidate and Rep. Eric Swalwell has plowed through more than $200,000 in campaign donations to pay for childcare, including several thousand dollars paid to his own wife, Brittany Swalwell, the mother of his children.
Federal Election Commission filings show that the $200,000 originates from 2019 through 2025. The campaign spent $22,000 on childcare from October to December 2025, marking the largest expenditure in a single quarter, according to Fox News.
The campaign paid Brittany Swalwell over $6,000 for “childcare,” in addition to $102,000 from 2021 to 2025 to a California-based woman named Amanda Barbosa.
Barbosa’s LinkedIn reportedly indicates she began a childcare company a month before Swalwell campaign began paying her.
Nearly $60,000 was paid from 2023 to 2025 to D.C.-based preschool Bambini Play & Learn Child Development Center.
FEC filings show that the campaign reimbursed $9,713.42 for payroll taxes related to campaign childcare, nearly $2,000 for “childcare for campaign event,” $1,124.11 for travel expenses, food, beverage and childcare reimbursements and $625.91 for childcare, food & beverages reimbursement, according to Fox.
The outlet reported that while federal law prohibits campaigns from using donations for personal expenses, the Federal Election Commission (FEC) stated in 2018 that childcare expenses resulting from campaign activities can be classified as campaign expenditures.
In 2022, following an appeal by Swalwell, the FEC clarified that campaign funds may also be used to cover overnight childcare expenses incurred due to campaign travel.
Still, the payments have raised questions among campaign finance experts. Dr. and attorney Allen Mendenhall warned that using campaign funds for childcare could create a slippery slope.
“It’s an expense that candidates with young children will incur regardless of whether they’re in a campaign,” Mendenhall said. “I have childcare costs. Many people have childcare costs, and we can’t just use this other money to subsidize our things.”
Mendenhall said the FEC could risk setting a precedent that shifts childcare costs to donors.
Mendenhall said the FEC could risk creating a precedent that shifts childcare costs to donors. He warned it could also open the door for clothing, grooming and other personal expenses to be classified as campaign expenditures.
“The danger here,” Mendenhall explained, “is creating a special class of politicians who are insulated from normal constraints, ordinary constraints that everybody else has to deal with.”
