Impeachment filters down to House, Senate races in Montana
As impeachment plays out in Washington, D.C., Republicans running for federal-level races in Montana all fall in line with their party’s message that it’s an attempt to undo the 2016 election, while Democratic candidates back the process with some staking out more aggressive positions than others.
“For Republicans it’s pretty easy to stick with what the party has said and say, ‘I’m opposed to impeachment,’” said Lee Banville, a political analyst and professor at the University of Montana. For Democrats, however, “it’s a trickier position.”
Democratic primary voters are more inclined to want a candidate to intensely back the impeachment process, Banville said. But to win in the general election, a Democrat needs to capture more moderates and independents who might think the president did something wrong but think impeaching him is too severe of a response.