House Democratic leadership expects to lose members during the impeachment vote. One of those members could be presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard, who is giving up her congressional seat to focus on the 2020 race.
Gabbard is not an establishment Democrat, nor is she a party loyalist. Indeed, much of her presidential campaign has been spent distancing herself from the Democratic Party — a party that is no longer one “of, by, and for the people,” she said last month. Gabbard wants to represent a new, better Democratic Party. If she’s serious, then she should vote against impeachment.
Breaking with her party line won’t cost her congressional support. She’s already abandoned reelection, and most House Democrats already disliked her. If anything, voting against the House’s two articles of impeachment against President Trump would help her among moderate, swing-state voters attracted to the political independence she’s selling.
It would prove that she’s committed to a new kind of politics — one that transcends establishment talking points, big money donations, and partisan feuds.
Gabbard is the only Democratic presidential candidate who hasn’t vocally supported the Democrats’ impeachment efforts, and earlier this week she told New Hampshire voters she remains “undecided.”
“I have had concerns for a long time about impeachment being pursued for partisan reasons,” Gabbard said Monday. “Pursuing impeachment for partisan reasons is something that will only further divide an already divided country, and it actually undermines our democracy.”
Right now, Gabbard is nothing more than an online sensation. She has little support in the polls — the latest average has her at 1.4% — and back in Hawaii, most of her constituents want her to drop out. A strong, definitive stand against impeachment could change this, and it could secure Gabbard political longevity.
