Philip Blumel: Arizona passes the term limits convention resolution. Boom.
Philip Blumel: Hi, I’m Philip Blumel. Welcome to No Uncertain Terms, the official podcast of the Term Limits movement. This is episode number 283, published on April 27, 2026.
Stacey Selleck: Your sanctuary from partisan politics.
Philip Blumel: Last week, the Arizona State Senate passed HCR 2043, the term limits convention resolution, with a bipartisan vote of 16 yeas and 13 nays. As the Arizona House has already approved the bill, this makes Arizona the 14th state to officially apply for an amendment proposing convention under Article 5 of the US Constitution limited to the subject of congressional term limits. Notably, Arizona is the second state to pass the application in 2026 and the eighth state to pass it in the last two years. The momentum continues to build, and this puts additional pressure on the US Congress to pass a term limits amendment itself. It would take 34 state applications to force a convention under the rules set up in Article 5 of the Constitution, but historically, when Congress has seen a convention as likely or inevitable, it has taken the initiative and passed the popular amendment itself. This successful effort was led by Senator J.D. Mesnard and Representative Jeff Weninger, with the assistance, of course, of Constantin Querard and the rest of the US Term Limits team. Congratulations, everyone.
Philip Blumel: Next. Is it any wonder that state after state is calling for term limits on the US Congress? State legislatures, 17 of them are term limited themselves, are much closer to the people than the Congress is, and the people are not happy with the US Congress. According to the latest Gallup poll released last Wednesday, the approval rating for Congress has fallen to just 10%. The 10% approval rating is just a tad above the poll’s all-time record low of 9 in November of 2013, which followed a 16-day partial government shutdown at that time. And this most recent survey comes amid a record-long government shutdown at the Department of Homeland Security this spring. Naturally, lots of issues have led Americans to be frustrated with Congress, but one of them is inaction on the issue of term limits. Even as polls have shown large majorities of Democrats, Republicans, and Independents have been calling for term limits on Congress consistently for over a generation, and even as state after state are turning these calls into explicit applications for constitutional action, Congress won’t budge. And don’t kid yourself, it’s not because the wrong party is in power. The Democrats held the presidency and both houses of Congress between January 2009 and January 2011 and took no action on congressional term limits. Republicans held a similar trifecta between 2017 and 2019. Nothing. That’s why the Founders gave the power to amend the Constitution to the states themselves as well as the Congress, because sometimes the Congress is the problem.
Philip Blumel: Next. Congressman Eric Swalwell of California has dropped his bid to be Governor of California and also resigned from the Congress at the same time over new allegations of sexual misconduct. US Term Limits has had our eye on this gentleman for some time. Back in November 2023, the US Term Limits congressional term limits constitutional amendment got its first House committee vote in decades. The vote was close, but the professional politicians stood firm, halting the advance of the popular amendment to the House floor. The vote was 19-17, then the amendment was dead. And one of the nasty 19 to vote it down was, yes, Eric Swalwell of California. Now, I’m gonna suggest to you that when Congress members vote against their own term limits, they are doing so in direct opposition to their constituents’ interests in order to directly further their own interests. This is a form of corruption. And even if you think I’m going too far in saying this, surely you, anyone would have to recognize at the very least there is a profound conflict of interest involved.
Philip Blumel: And that conflict of interest is direct. In May 2022, US Term Limits commissioned a poll of 500 likely primary voters in California’s 15th congressional district. This was Swalwell’s district at the time. It covered overlapping East Bay, Alameda County areas. All right? 80% of his voters, now this is his party’s voters, this is primary voters, 80% of his voters favored a constitutional amendment to place term limits on US senators and House members. And yet, when given the chance, he voted no. A year prior to that, Representative Eric Swalwell was featured in one of our Profiles in Corruption segments on this very podcast, No Uncertain Terms. Let’s relisten to a clip from the No Uncertain Terms episode 151 from 2021. Roll it.
Speaker 3: Corruption.
Philip Blumel: California Congressman Eric Swalwell is best known for his girlfriend Christina Fang, also known as Fang Fang, who had to flee the country after being identified by the FBI as a Chinese spy. But this year, the 40-year-old Congressman is being investigated as it is being alleged he is spending tens of thousands of dollars of campaign contributions on liquor, limos, high-end steakhouses, and five-star hotels, something prohibited by federal law. Naturally, someone who so enthusiastically embraces the special opportunities of power is hardly likely to want to give it up. And indeed, Representative Swalwell has refused to sign the US Term Limits congressional pledge, which would commit him to co-sponsor and vote for the congressional term limits amendment. Like his relationship with Fang Fang and his lavish lifestyle, term limits is not something the Congressman likes to discuss. In 2019, CNN’s Poppy Harlow made Representative Swalwell squirm with this simple question.
Poppy Harlow: Term limits. Interesting proposal by Republican Senator Ted Cruz and also Republican Francis Rooney. It proposes a constitutional amendment and it would instill term limits for both the Senate, two terms, and three two-year terms for the House. Do you support that?
Eric Swalwell: I think the best term limit is to have public financing of campaigns and independent redistricting. I beat a 40-year Democrat…
Poppy Harlow: So that’s a no.
Eric Swalwell: That’s a no and…
Poppy Harlow: That’s a no on the constitutional amendment. But…
Philip Blumel: Congress comes with lots of perks, some legal. For instance, Swalwell and his wife, yes, he’s married, traveled to Qatar in the Middle East on a junket paid for by the US-Qatar Business Council. This trip got him in hot water too, as while he was being photographed smiling and riding shirtless on a camel, his constituents were in lockdown in California due to a pandemic. The Qatar trip was legal, but misuse of campaign contributions is not. You recall from a previous corruption segment on this podcast that Duncan Hunter, a Republican, and his wife were busted doing the same thing, albeit on a larger scale. Hunter spent 11 months in prison. Specifically, Representative Swalwell is accused of spending over $20,000 of campaign money at the ritzy Half Moon Bay resort on the Northern California coast, including on limos and liquor. He also spent over $7,000 at high-end steakhouses in DC and New York City. FEC reports suggest he has also spent $566 on alcohol delivery from Drizly and $1,151 at Capitol Hill Wine and Spirits near Congress. Now, some of that money may have been solicited by Fang Fang, who was a financial contribution bundler for the Swalwell campaign.
Philip Blumel: According to the FBI, Fang Fang had struck up relationships with municipal politicians, including two Midwest mayors who they didn’t name, before moving on to Swalwell, who was then a Dublin, California council member. She was a member of the Chinese Student Association at California State University, East Bay, where she enrolled after arriving in the states in 2011. Assisting Swalwell in being elected to Congress in 2012, Fang continued to work with Swalwell until she was alerted of the FBI investigation and returned to China in 2015. Swalwell broke off all ties with her right away. The relationship almost cost Representative Swalwell his seat on the House Intelligence Committee, but didn’t. Regardless whether or not Swalwell crossed the line into illegality with his wild recreational spending, we’ll find out soon enough. But the archetype of the power-seeking, women-chasing, free-spending partier is no stranger in the US Congress or any other legislative body. This is why term limits are so necessary and why politicians loathe them.
Philip Blumel: Next. You can’t fire me. I quit. In the last few episodes of this podcast, we’ve been following the collapse of another active term limits opponent in the US Congress, Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick of Florida. Cherfilus-McCormick is the congressmember found guilty by the House Ethics Committee of corruption charges, including embezzling over $5 million of COVID funds to pay for her successful campaign for Congress. But we don’t need to relitigate that case. Representative Cherfilus-McCormick has announced that she too is resigning from Congress. The news broke just before a hearing of the House Ethics Committee last week was about to begin to decide whether to expel her from Congress.
Philip Blumel: Next. On a sad note, a third member has left the Congress, but under far different circumstances. Representative David Scott of Georgia passed away this month at age 80 after serving in the House of Representatives for about 24 years. First elected over two decades ago, he was in the midst of a re-election campaign for his 13th term. Now, Representative Scott had been suffering from age-related ailments at the tail end of his career and had missed many House votes. Reports from as early as 2022 noted that he had noticeably slowed, spoke haltingly, relied heavily on prepared scripts and leaning on his aides, and struggled in committee settings. By his final period as ranking member on the Agriculture Committee, his speeches were shortened and he had trouble engaging fully.
Philip Blumel: Representative Scott was a ranking member of the committee, the Agriculture Committee. But in 2024, House Democrats removed him from this leadership role, explicitly citing concerns over his age and his health. Now, the problems of aged members like Representative David Scott and those of basically crooks like Swalwell and Cherfilus-McCormick are very different. But term limits improve congressional function in both cases for the same reason, and that is that the powers of incumbency are so great that a congressmember running for re-election to their own seat wins well over 90% of the time. And this proves true whether the incumbent is under indictment or can’t even remember where their office is. The victory is essentially automatic. Now, term limits create open seat races in every district where fresh candidates vie for support in the public eye. The incumbent doesn’t just waltz back into office.
Philip Blumel: Next. There was an unusual amount of interest in the United States about the April 12th elections in Hungary that tossed out Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s party there after 16 years of increasingly illiberal leadership. Instead, the voters chose Peter Magyar and his Tisza Party, who won a decisive two-thirds majority. As our own Myra Kosek at US Term Limits pointed out to us in a blog post recently, the most significant pillar of Magyar’s campaign was the anti-autocracy amendment. This proposal aims to ensure that no future leader can replicate Orban’s 16-year tenure. Specifically, the amendment would impose a strict constitutional limit of two terms on the office of Prime Minister. That’s right. In Peter Magyar’s words on election night, “A leader who believes they are the only person capable of running a country has already failed that country. Power is a loan from the people, not a permanent possession.” Amen.
Stacey Selleck: Like the show? You can help by subscribing and leaving a five-star review on both Apple and Spotify. It’s free.
Philip Blumel: Thanks for joining us for another episode of No Uncertain Terms. The term limits convention bills are moving through the state legislatures. This could be a breakthrough year for the term limits movement. To check on the status of the term limits convention resolution in your state, go to termlimits.com/takeaction. There, you will see if it has been introduced and where it stands in the committee process on its way to the floor vote. If there’s action to take, you’ll see a Take Action button by your state. Click it. This will give you the opportunity to send a message to the most relevant legislators urging them to support the legislation. They have to know you are watching. That’s termlimits.com/takeaction. If your state has already passed the term limits convention resolution or the bill has not been introduced in your state, you can still help. Please consider making a contribution to US Term Limits. It is our aim to hit the reset button on the US Congress, and you can help. Go to termlimits.com/donate. Termlimits.com/donate. Thanks. We’ll be back next week.
Stacey Selleck: Find us on most social media @ustermlimits. Like us on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, and now LinkedIn.
S?: U-S-T-L.
