Congressional Democrats from across New York endorsed moving forward with impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump on Tuesday.
But what will the political fallout be for some of these lawmakers? It may be too soon to tell.
Rep. Antonio Delgado (NY-19) became the most prominent of the battleground incumbents to endorse an impeachment inquiry against Trump, pointing to the president’s admitted push to have Ukrainian officials investigate the business dealings of Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden.
Delgado said he was alarmed that Trump may have sought to tie foreign aid to the investigation.
“Having taken an oath of office before God and my fellow citizens to support and defend the Constitution of the United States, I can only conclude that Congress move forward with articles of impeachment,” Delgado said in a statement released through his office.
Delgado was soon joined by fellow upstate Democrats Paul Tonko (NY-20), Sean Patrick Maloney (NY-18), Joe Morelle (NY-25), Tom Suozzi (NY-3) and Gregory Meeks (NY-6) in support of an impeachment inquiry.
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Rep. Anthony Brindisi, a Democrat from the Mohawk Valley who unseated Republican Rep. Claudia Tenney last year in a district Trump handily won in 2016, hasn’t endorsed the impeachment inquiry.
Republicans, including State GOP Chairman Nick Langworthy, blasted their stance.
“They’re focused more on playing national politics and pandering to the extreme left in their own party than they are to face those bread and butter issues,” Langworthy said.
Democrats in Congress have become too beholden to firebrand progressives like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, figures who are popular with the progressive base, but less so with a broader electorate, Langworthy said.
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“They want to derail this president’s agenda and focus on squarely on this,” he said. “This is not what the America people want, this is not what the taxpayers of New York state need and these members of Congress should be ashamed of themselves for joining this action."
Delgado represents a swing seat in the Hudson Valley, a district held by Republicans in the past and carried by Trump three years ago. The campaign arm of House Republicans called impeachment the political death knell for Delgado. But Morgan Hook, a consultant with the public affairs firm SKD Knickberbocker, disagrees.
“I think it’s the other way around,” Hook said. “I think Republicans all over the country are now going to have to explain why they will not vote for impeachment proceedings when the evidence is so clear that this administration has been corrupt from day one.”
And Hook says it’s too early to determine what will be on voters minds more than a year from now in the 2020 election.
“Frankly there’s just too much time, too much stuff can happen between now and then,” he said. “I don’t think there’s any way we know what’s going to be the number one issue for voters a year from now.”