Eric Swalwell has made a habit of posting and sending out screenshots of his betting odds in the race for California governor.
The Bay Area Democrat has every reason to keep at it, holding frontrunner status on the most popular prediction markets, Kalshi and Polymarket, for months.
But he’s hardly alone in tracking performance on the platforms, where millions of dollars are flowing, and politicians are starting to promote wagers — alongside more traditional metrics like polling and fundraising — to demonstrate momentum in the midterms.
“This cycle, it’s basically all I hear about from all my friends who are running for office around the country,” said former Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, the New York Democrat who was Swalwell’s colleague in the House and now leads a coalition representing Kalshi and competitors in the prediction markets space.
