Elissa Slotkin, Freshman Democrat From Swing District Says She Will Vote to Impeach Trump

(ROCHESTER) — Michigan Rep. Elissa Slotkin, a freshman Democrat who flipped a battleground Republican seat, said Monday she will vote to impeach President Donald Trump.

Slotkin, who first announced her decision in an op-ed in the Detroit Free Press, explained her thinking at an intense town hall at Oakland University in suburban Detroit. Many in the crowd of more than 400 people stood and applauded her multiple times, while a smaller group of pro-Trump, anti-impeachment protesters heckled her and yelled “four more years” for Trump.

“To me, this was an issue of principle,” said Slotkin, who worked in U.S. intelligence, national security and defense during the Obama and Bush administrations. She said she made her decision “out of a duty to protect and defend the Constitution. I feel that in my bones, and I will stick to that regardless of what it does to me politically.”

Slotkin represents the 8th Congressional District, which backed Trump over Hillary Clinton in his 2016 election but elected her in 2018 over a Republican incumbent.

Trump faces two articles of impeachment by House Democrats: abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. They point to Trump pressuring Ukraine to investigate 2020 political rival Joe Biden while withholding as leverage military aid the country relies on to counter Russia as well as his efforts to block the House investigation.

The House will vote Wednesday on the impeachment articles approved last week by the House Judiciary panel. The vote is all but certain to result in Trump’s impeachment, though he is expected to be acquitted in a Senate trial.