Representing U.S: Which House members support impeachment?
This story comes to you from APM Research Lab, MPR News’ sister organization. Read the full story on APM Research Lab.
Updated: Oct. 10, 4:31 p.m. | Posted: Oct. 3, 2:36 p.m.
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., announced Tuesday that she supported opening an impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump, officially beginning the next chapter in her party’s months-long saga to exact Congressional oversight on the White House.
Pelosi’s announcement came days after the Washington Post first reported a whistleblower complaint from within the intelligence community, which detailed an “urgent concern” regarding a phone call between the president and a foreign leader.
Since that first story broke, numerous media reports described the phone call in question as a conversation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in which Trump asked Zelensky to help investigate Joe Biden and his activities in Ukraine when Biden was vice president.
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Those reports were largely confirmed by a memorandum released by the White House that documented Trump’s conversation with Zelensky. Congress later released an unclassified version of the whistleblower complaint.
Since Pelosi’s announcement, all but seven remaining House Democrats have publicly joined the call for an impeachment inquiry.
Explore more about those undecided House Democrats and their districts using our interactive tools below.
Note: Since these data visualizations were published, Rep. Mark Amodei (R-Nev.) told The Nevada Independent that he wanted to “let the committees get to work and see where it goes,” but that he would not vote to impeach the president. Given the equivocal nature of his comments, his district is not highlighted in the first visualization.
Who supports impeachment? Who doesn’t?
While nearly every Democrat has joined the House Speaker in her call to initiate impeachment proceedings, a handful remain equivocal.
Hover over each district in the map above to see which Democrats support impeachment, which Democrats don’t and how their districts voted in the 2016 presidential election.
And take a closer look at the Democrats who do not currently support impeachment below.
How close was the last House race among those Democrats who do not support impeachment?
Who are the Democrats who publicly endorsed impeachment since September?
Democratic calls to impeach grew louder over summer, but the speed by which Democrats publicly announced their support for opening those proceedings accelerated dramatically after Congress returned from its August recess.
Hover above each House district in the map above to see which Democrats announced their support for impeachment since September and read the list below.
How close was the last House race among those Democrats who offered support for impeachment since September?
The elephant in the room: Congressional Republicans mostly resist Pelosi’s call for impeachment
Republican members of Congress have remained largely supportive of the president, and when the House adjourned for its October recess, only one GOP House member said that he was open to seeing an investigation proceed.
Rep. Mark Amodei (R-Nev.) told the Nevada Independent that the relevant committees should investigate and then make a decision. Amodei represents Nevada’s 2nd District is the only Republican from that state’s Congressional delegation.
Another exception is Rep. Justin Amash (I-Mich.), who was elected as a Republican but left the party in July over concerns about the Trump’s conduct in office. Amash is currently the only independent serving in the House.
The GOP caucus in the House finds itself in a precarious situation: It lost its majority by more than 40 seats in the 2018 midterm elections. Hover over each district on the map below to see which House districts flipped from red to blue in the map below.
And explore the margins of victory for each house race in the interactive graph below.
Finally, check out what each district’s support was for either Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election.