A group of Republican women in the House is driving Congress’s latest push for sexual misconduct accountability, escalating calls for transparency and resignations with a blunt message: no member is above scrutiny, regardless of party.
Representatives Nancy Mace of South Carolina, Anna Paulina Luna of Florida, and Lauren Boebert of Colorado have spent months pressuring colleagues from both parties, arguing that Congress has long failed to police itself when it comes to workplace misconduct.
Within hours of each other this week, Representative Eric Swalwell, a California Democrat, and Representative Tony Gonzales, a Texas Republican, announced they would step down amid sexual misconduct allegations and the growing prospect of expulsion votes.
The twin resignations marked one of the most visible accountability moments since the height of the #MeToo movement, when allegations of abuse and harassment reshaped political careers across Washington.
Inside the Capitol, lawmakers describe the moment as the culmination of a pressure campaign that has been building across partisan lines.
A Pressure Campaign Years in the Making
Their push has sharpened in recent months, expanding from individual resignation demands into broader efforts to force disclosure of internal ethics findings and subpoena congressional records.
“Our subpoena motion will put it all on the table,” Representative Nancy Mace said in a statement to Newsweek. “Swalwell and Gonzales are only two out of 435. We want to know what every member of Congress is hiding and using taxpayer dollars to keep buried.”
“This is not a party issue. It never was,” Mace added. “Republican or Democrat, if you are abusing the public trust or covering up your misconduct on the taxpayer’s dime, you should be brought into the light and held accountable. No exceptions. The establishment has kept these records buried for too long. Our subpoena motion puts an end to it.”
Representative Anna Paulina Luna echoed that stance. “No one is above the law, and I will be voting to expel them so we can get back to doing our job and serving the people we represent,” Luna told Newsweek.
In recent weeks, Mace has also called for the resignation or expulsion of Representative Cory Mills and Representative Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick. The allegations span ethics violations, workplace misconduct claims, and financial impropriety, and have not been fully adjudicated through courts or completed ethics proceedings.
The scope of the campaign has grown beyond individual cases into a broader challenge to the secrecy of congressional ethics processes themselves. That argument has also intersected with earlier transparency battles, including efforts to force the release of federal records tied to Jeffrey Epstein.
At the core of the push is a claim that confidential investigative systems inside Congress have allowed misconduct to persist without public consequence.
The System Under Pressure
Those tensions are now being tested more directly as misconduct allegations continue to reshape the House.
House rules explicitly ban sexual relationships between members and staff, and post-#MeToo reforms were designed to improve reporting mechanisms and speed up workplace complaints. But enforcement remains inconsistent, and much of the process still operates out of public view.
Representative Anna Paulina Luna argued that the Ethics Committee itself is failing to meet basic standards. “Serious reform is long overdue in the current Ethics Committee process,” Luna said. “Investigations should not drag on for years only to produce little or no meaningful outcome. The Committee exists to investigate misconduct, including serious allegations like sexual assault, and to uphold the integrity of Congress. Right now, that standard is not being met.”
Former Representative Jackie Speier, who helped lead earlier reform efforts, has argued that the core problem is structural: each lawmaker effectively controls their own office, leaving little independent oversight.
“There’s really no one overseeing you,” Speier has said.
Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez described the recent resignations as a “turning point,” while emphasizing that deeper institutional reform is still necessary.
The departures of Representative Swalwell and Representative Gonzales have intensified scrutiny on House leadership, but they have not resolved the broader questions driving the current wave of pressure: how allegations are handled, how investigations are disclosed, and whether Congress can effectively police itself.
A Moment That May Not End With Resignations
Leadership in both parties has historically resisted broad efforts to expand disclosure of ethics investigations, citing concerns about privacy and due process. Bipartisan outrage over misconduct often surges in moments like this, but tends to fade before producing lasting structural change.
Still, the current push feels distinct because of who is driving it. Rather than emerging from leadership or outside advocacy groups, the pressure is coming from within Congress itself.
Whether that translates into durable reform remains unclear. But for now, the resignations of Representative Swalwell and Representative Gonzales have become less an endpoint than a sign that the system is under sustained strain.
Some observers have criticized Mace, Luna and other Republican women leading the push for their continued support of President Donald Trump, who has faced multiple sexual misconduct allegations and was found liable in a civil case in New York for sexual abuse.
“This is not about playing party politics,” Luna said regarding the Trump criticisms. “I don’t care if they are a Democrat or Republican; if there is evidence of unethical or illegal behavior, the sooner we get that behavior out, the better.”
While Mace was pressed about Trump in a 2024 ABC interview, she rejected comparisons between civil liability and criminal conviction and pushed back on the framing of the question, arguing that voters “had already moved on and were focused on other issues.”
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