How Trump Impeachment Trial Poses Headwinds For His Democratic Challengers In Senate

Five Democratic Senators including Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren running for their party's presidential nomination are faced with the twin tasks of emerging as the dominant challenger of President Donald Trump and participating in the imminent impeachment trial.

The House of Representatives will vote Wednesday on the two impeachment articles passed by the House Judiciary Committee that paves the way for an impeachment trial in the Senate in January. The trial throws a wrench in the election campaigns of five senators running to be the Democratic nominee for the 2020 election.

Along with Sanders of Vermont and Warren of Massachusetts, Senators Michael Bennet of Colorado, Cory Booker of New Jersey and Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota are now scrambling to figure out how best to squeeze in the all-important impeachment trial into their already busy campaign schedule. They have started brainstorming on possible tele-town halls, campaign representatives and small trips, Reuters reported.

The impeachment will put an added responsibility on the five Democrats to be preset during the trial while other candidates such as former Vice-President Joe Biden are left to focus on their campaigns. Biden continues to be the front runner in the race. Pete Buttigieg has also risen in several in opinion polls.

“We are considering every possible option: red-eye flights, tele-town halls, surrogates, staff travel,” Booker’s campaign manager Addisu Demissie said last week, according to Reuters. “We’re in this thing and we’re going to fight to the last breath.”

Warren's campaign has already introduced her husband Bruce Mann as a proxy last week with an appearance in New Hampshire. U.S. Representative Ayanna Pressley, one of the three co-chairs of Warren campaign, also visited the state last week.

The Sanders campaign said that Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar and Ro Kanna could all be used in his place, Reuters reported. He also may do weekend trips and appear remotely.

Bennet’s campaign said they would consider the impeachment trial’s schedule while planning events. “Every chance he gets, he will be on the campaign trail talking to early state voters,” a campaign spokesperson for Bennet told Reuters.

Klobuchar is expected to use proxies like Warren and Sanders.

Last week, Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer of New York said the senators running for president should make the impeachment trial number one on their agendas.

“This has to come first. This is one of the most solemn decisions that anyone has to make and I’ve told all members of my caucus that scheduling concerns are secondary to doing this the right way,” Schumer said, according to the Hill.

Trump has been charged with abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. The House of Representatives is expected to vote for impeachment, but the Senate is likely to acquit Trump in the trial.