Vice President Mike Pence will travel the country this week to visit vulnerable Democratic congressional districts in the wake of impeachment frenzy, according to a report from Politico.
Each district on the vice president’s itinerary voted for Trump in 2016. Of the 31 districts, nearly two dozen are represented by Democrats who have expressed public support for impeachment. Pence will crisscross the country to make stops at key battleground districts, including those of Cindy Axne (D., Iowa), Angie Craig (D., Minn.), and Elissa Slotkin (D., Mich.).
At each stop, Pence is expected to paint Democrats as being more focused on destroying the president than on solving the problems of their constituents.
President Trump has vociferously defended the contents of his July call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky since it became the subject of an official impeachment inquiry by House Democrats. Trump has focused the majority of his attacks on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D., Calif.), suggesting on Twitter on Sunday night that the two were guilty of colluding against him and must be “immediately impeached.” Members of Congress cannot in fact be impeached.
Republicans, meanwhile, are hoping to broaden the focus to target other House Democrats.
“While the ‘Do Nothing Democrats’ attempt to distract with their endless investigations, the vice president and this administration are laser focused on policies that put Americans first and make our country great,” Katie Waldman, a spokeswoman for Pence, told Politico.
The strategy worked well during the last impeachment frenzy surrounding a president, as the Democrats gained five congressional seats in the 1998 midterm elections on the back of a GOP-led impeachment of Bill Clinton. A recent poll by the National Republican Congressional Committee showed that 47 percent of voters in Democratic-held target districts oppose impeachment, compared to 44 percent who support it.
According to the article, the Republican National Committee has ramped up offensive tactics to seize on the energy surrounding the issue, briefing key donors on the strategy at a New York City retreat this weekend and deploying field staffers to organize protests in key districts during the two-week congressional recess.