Rep. Elissa Slotkin, Freshman Democrat From Trump District, Will Vote for Impeachment

Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.) speaks in a file photo. Zach Gibson/Getty Images

Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.) confirmed she will vote in favor of impeachment when the two articles are introduced to the House floor this week in a move that may imperil her chances for reelection in 2020.

Slotkin is one of several freshmen Democratic members of Congress who will vote “yea” on the two articles of impeachment accusing President Donald Trump of abusing his power and obstruction of Congress.

“To be clear, presidents from both parties have leveraged the powerful role of the United States to get foreign countries to do what’s in our interest,” Slotkin wrote for the Detroit Free Press. She said that the difference is that “President Trump used the power of the presidency for his own benefit, to give himself some advantage in the very election that would determine whether he remained in office.”

Up until late last week, Slotkin—a former CIA official who served in Iraq—said she was undecided.

The freshman Democrat said her decision wasn’t based on political motivations and said she reviewed the evidence against Trump.

“Over the past few days, I have done what I was trained to do as a CIA officer who worked for both Republicans and Democrats: I took a step back, looked at the full body of available information, and tried to make an objective decision on my vote,” she wrote in the newspaper opinion piece. Slotkin added that she “read and re-read reports and transcripts,” examined records from the Nixon and Clinton administrations, Federalist Papers, and the U.S. Constitution.

She is among 31 Democrats from Congressional districts that Trump carried in the 2018 mid-term elections.

Two Democrats, Reps. Jeff Van Drew of New Jersey and Collin Peterson of Minnesota, have reportedly made it clear that they oppose impeachment and will vote against the two articles when they hit the House floor.

“There are some decisions in life that have to be made based on what you know in your bones is right,” Slotkin argued. “And this is one of those times.”

As Slotkin was mulling her decision on impeachment in October, Slotkin was confronted by her constituents at a contentious town hall in Michigan.

“The issue that got to me was this idea that the President, the most powerful man in the world, reached out to a foreigner, a foreign leader, and asked him to dig up dirt on an American,” Slotkin told the town hall meeting, echoing claims made by top Democrats in her caucus.

Cries of “fake news!” and “not true!” were heard from members of the crowd, as reported by CNN, which noted that her district favored Trump by 7 percentage points in 2016. Another video of the town hall meeting showed that some audience members booed and heckled her.