Vote locks in impeachment as issue in 2020 congressional races
WASHINGTON — The day after nearly every House Democrat voted to impeach President Donald Trump, the chief of the House Republican campaign committee said the political fallout was clear.
“Last night their obsession with impeachment finally came to a head, and they basically ended their majority,” Minnesota Rep. Tom Emmer said Thursday. “Max Rose is done,” he continued, listing him among freshmen Democrats from districts Trump captured in 2016 who he said won’t survive next November’s elections.
The feisty Rose, a Brooklyn native and Afghanistan combat veteran with an advanced degree from the London School of Economics, sees things differently. “Mark my words, OK?” said Rose, whose Staten Island-centered district was the only one Trump won in New York City. “We are going to beat them by such a wide margin that next time around, they won’t even talk like this again, OK?”
It’s too early to say who will be proven correct as Republicans wage a challenging struggle to regain the House majority they lost last year. But less than 11 months from presidential and congressional elections, the near partyline House vote impeaching Trump locked in lawmakers’ positions on the subject. Many moderate lawmakers from swing districts had spent months saying they were on the fence.
Now, voters will decide whether to reward or punish incumbents for their choices. And while Republicans and Democrats acknowledge that other issues like the economy and health care costs could overwhelm impeachment by next November, both sides — but especially the GOP — are already using the bitter impeachment fight as weapons.
“This is an attack on democracy,” blared one Trump campaign fundraising email that included a thank you from “Donald J. Trump, President of the United States.“It added, “An attack on freedom. An attack on everything we hold dear in this country. And it’s an attack on YOU.”
Freshman Rep. Harley Rouda, who ousted a 30year House GOP veteran from what was once a Republican stronghold in Southern California, was among Democrats issuing their own pleas for cash.
“Last night I cast my vote to defend our Constitution and impeach the President of the United States. A vote bigger than party, polling, and politics, & we’ve faced an onslaught of attacks since,” Rouda beseeched supporters.
Republican organizations and conservative outside groups have outspent their Democratic rivals, $11 million to $5 million, on television ads mentioning impeachment in congressional races. The figures from Advertising Analytics, a firm in Alexandria, Va., that tracks advertising, exclude spending by candidates’ campaigns.
So far, both sides have combined to spend at least $500,000 in each of 15 House races from South Carolina to Nevada on impeachment spots, the data shows. Republican groups have spent that amount without any Democratic expenditures in three other districts in Utah, Minnesota and New York.