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PA Pols Follow Party Lines on Impeachment Vote

The U.S. House of Representatives passed a resolution on Thursday for the next phase of the impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump’s phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy

The vote, which is viewed as the first noteworthy step into the impeachment inquiry, passed 232-196. Mirroring the overall vote in the House, Pennsylvania’s 18 member Congressional delegation fell entirely along party lines. 

All 9 members of Pennsylvania’s Democratic delegation voted for the resolution, while all 9 Republicans voted against it.

Pennsylvania’s GOP Congressional delegation, minus Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Bucks), shot out a press release slamming the Democrats vote for an impeachment inquiry as a “sham.” 

The National Republican Congressional Committee was quick to send out an email after the vote headlined “PA Dems vote to end their careers” and specifically pointed out Reps. Matt Cartwright (D-Lackawanna), Conor Lamb (D-Allegheny), and Susan Wild (D-Lehigh) voting for the move. 

While the NRCC has placed those three representatives on their initial 2020 target list, Cartwright, Lamb, and Wild delivered comments after the vote saying that the resolution they voted in favor of doesn’t indicate that they support impeaching Trump. Lamb said that he voted yes because it “sets the rules for the upcoming hearings,” but added that he has “not made any decision about impeachment, nor will” he until “all the evidence is in,” according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s Julian Routh. Wild said that today’s vote is “not a vote for impeachment. It’s a resolution that’s nothing more than a process resolution.” In late September, Cartwright issued a statement supporting the inquiry, but said that “actual impeachment of the president and/or senior cabinet officials remains to be seen.” 

Support for impeachment among Pennsylvania’s Democratic Congressional delegation has evolved significantly in 2019. Entering the month of May, only Rep. Dwight Evans (D-Philadelphia) supported an impeachment inquiry, but by the month of June, Reps. Brendan Boyle (D-Philadelphia), Madeleine Dean (D-Montgomery), and Mary Gay Scanlon (D-Delaware) issued their support for the move. Shortly after the phone call with Trump and Zelenskiy became public in late September, the rest of the states Democratic delegation offered support for the inquiry. 

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), who presided over the chamber on Thursday during the vote, will be coming to Pennsylvania for the next few days. On Friday evening, Pelosi will be headlining the Pennsylvania Democratic Party’s inaugural “Independence Dinner” in Philadelphia. On Saturday, Pelosi will headline a fundraiser in Montgomery County hosted by La Colombe founder Todd Carmichael, “benefiting potentially vulnerable Pennsylvania incumbents Wild, Matt Cartwright and Conor Lamb, as well as challenger Eugene DePasquale,” the Philadelphia Inquirer reports. 

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