House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) has repeatedly made clear that, after President Donald Trump solicited Ukrainian leaders to announce investigations that personally benefitted him, the decision to launch impeachment proceedings wasn't a political maneuver, but a constitutional mandate.
The move came after years of Trump's supporters, as well as some critics, insisted that impeachment would be political suicide for the Democrats.
Since shortly after the inquiry's announcement in September, support for impeachment outweighed its oppositon as more revelations surfaced of Trump's dealings with Ukraine, but his 2020 campaign manager Brad Parscale attempted to show that Pelosi's move to impeach would lose Democrats their House majority.
He chose Democratic Congresswoman Kendra Horn of Oklahoma's 5th District as an example. Horn defeated Republican incumbent Steve Russell in the 2018 midterms, marking the first time in 44 years that a Democrat won the seat. Trump won Oklahoma with over 65% of the vote in 2016.
Parscale gloated that Horn's support for impeachment would inevitably result in her defeat, and he thought he brought receipts to show it.
It wasn't a surprise to anyone that the Democratic Horn would be vulnerable in the Republican stronghold, with an uphill battle to reelection whether she supported impeachment or not.
But one number surprised everyone: support for impeachment in Oklahoma's deep red 5th District is at 45%.
As Washington Post reporter Mike DeBonis and others pointed out, the number should be far more concerning to Trump's supporters than to Democrats.
Some people were confused: If impeachment support really was so harmful to vulnerable Democrats, why would Parscale warn them? The conclusion was that Parscale was using the poll to pressure unsure Democratic lawmakers.
On Thursday, Pelosi instructed the House to move forward in drafting articles of impeachment, with a floor vote happening as early as Christmas.
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