Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Dublin, gives a speech at Dublin High School, his alma mater, on April 14, 2019, in Dublin. 

Gubernatorial hopeful Eric Swalwell isn’t from the same California as you and me.

That’s because he is from Dublin, in the East Bay.

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Of course, Dublin is a California city, at least geographically. But 21st century California is defined by stagnation in population and economy — making Dublin, the state’s fastest-growing municipality, feel like another planet.

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While California’s population has remained stuck at less than 40 million, with growth of less than 1% annually, Dublin has more than doubled in population, from under 30,000 in 2000 to 74,691 last year.

While the California landscape is dusty and brown, Dublin boasts lush parks (like 48-acre Emerald Glen) and green hills reminiscent of Ireland, which inspired its name.

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And while California shows its age with decaying infrastructure and a surge in senior citizens, Dublin, which was only incorporated in 1982, offers an abundance of sports facilities, youth programs and excellent schools.

You might imagine that his hometown’s success would be a natural topic for Swalwell on the stump. And the candidate — who moved to Dublin as a child and graduated Dublin High — did highlight Dublin in his campaign kickoff last November.

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“When I was on the planning commission, people told us we couldn’t build our way out of a housing crisis,” Swalwell said. “We proved them wrong. Dublin didn’t just grow; we grew with intention.”

But Swalwell, the top Democrat in gubernatorial polls, is talking less about his hometown now. The candidate did not respond  to my requests to discuss the city.

The fact that Dublin’s success might be a political liability is another demonstration of the strangeness of the 2026 governor race.

California voters have become so compulsively negative about the state that they might not want to hear about Dublin’s skyrocketing growth. Local media in Dublin objected to Swalwell’s campaign website claiming that the city was a “place of low income and expectations” before a transformation during his time in city office. Swalwell spent just two years on the planning commission and two years on the city council. Dublin has always had big ambitions, locals insist. 

Highlighting Dublin also risks fueling questions about how tied Swalwell remains to the state after more than a decade in Congress. One gubernatorial opponent, billionaire Tom Steyer, alleges that Swalwell really lives in Washington, D.C., not at his Dublin-adjacent address in Livermore.

But a bigger reason for talking less about Dublin is that this governor’s race is not a campaign about California policy ideas or state governance. It’s become a contest about which candidate might best fight Trump.

That has been to the advantage of Swalwell, who never served in state government but has feuded with the president since leading the Trump impeachment team in 2019. Swalwell has said his No. 1 priority as governor will be to “keep the worst president in history out of our homes, out of our streets, and out of our lives.”

This campaign dynamic has also boosted the poll standing of gubernatorial candidate Katie Porter, another member of Congress without state government experience but with a history of taking on Trump in D.C. and on television. Ironically, Porter is also from a successful and fast-growing outer suburb — in her case, Irvine, in Orange County. But, tellingly, she doesn’t talk about her hometown except to complain about the cost of living.

Meanwhile, candidates with deep experience in California and local governance are languishing in the single digits in the polls. The most maddening example of this dynamic is former Los Angeles mayor and state Assembly speaker Antonio Villaraigosa, who has probably forgotten more about California government than Swalwell or Porter may ever know.

(Another ironic bit of trivia: Swalwell and Porter were both born in northwest Iowa, in small towns just 40 minutes apart, before their families moved to California.)

Even if Swalwell and Porter have made highly developed plans for the “Dublin-ization” or “Irvine-ization” of California, it wouldn’t make much sense to publicize them. 

Both Dublin and Irvine have benefited from extensive master-planning by powerful developers (like the Irvine Company, and Trumark Homes in Dublin) who are not always popular with voters. And making the Golden State more like those two cities would draw backlash from environmental groups who dislike rapid growth in edge cities — and whose endorsements Swalwell and Porter now seek.

Guest opinions in Open Forum and Insight are produced by writers with expertise, personal experience or original insights on a subject of interest to our readers. Their views do not necessarily reflect the opinion of The Chronicle editorial board, which is committed to providing a diversity of ideas to our readership.

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Indeed, Swalwell and Porter are both running insider campaigns focused on gathering support from powerful interest groups and politicians. Neither has advanced ideas that would rock the boat. In other words, if you want your own California community to embrace growth, accelerate housing construction, and offer more to kids, casting a ballot for Swalwell probably won’t you get there.

Much better to vote with your feet and move to Dublin.

Joe Mathews writes the Connecting California column for Zócalo Public Square.

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