Until Wednesday, New York Rep. Max Rose, a military veteran who unseated a Republican in 2018, had not come out in favor of impeachment. But during a town hall in his Staten Island district, Rose made the case for investigating Trump and was met with a round of applause.
“Instead of allaying our concerns, the president and his administration have poured gasoline on the fire. The American people have a right to know if their president used the power of his or her office to get a foreign power to interfere in our elections,” Rose said, according to HuffPost.
By the time Rose—who sits in a seat Trump won by 10 points in 2016—threw his support behind an impeachment inquiry, he had already been taking a pounding from a $2 million ad campaign by the Republican National Committee charging that he was prioritizing investigations over jobs. But even with the backdrop of that ad campaign, Rose appears to be weathering his embrace of the impeachment inquiry just fine. And so far, that has been the experience of several Democratic swing-district members who favor the inquiry and have held town halls.
Pennsylvania Rep. Susan Wild met with similar support for her pro-impeachment stance during a town hall this week at Muhlenberg College. Wild said the phone calls to her office regarding impeachment were 85% in support of either impeachment or an impeachment inquiry. That positive ratio seemed to be reflected during Wild’s town hall as voters who grilled her on support were booed while the suggestion that Democrats should jail Trump officials who refuse to cooperate met with applause. In response to one question about why she was more interested in impeachment than on issues like local schools, Wild said it was "a mistake" to believe that Democrats were "spending all of our time on impeachment."
One of the benefits of not cancelling this recess was that it gave lawmakers in tough districts a chance to go back home and address their constituents. That's turning out pretty well so far.