Will Trump Impeachment Negatively Affect Joe Biden's Election Campaign?

While former vice president Joe Biden's name was front and center during president Donald Trump's impeachment trial in the Senate, Biden isn't expected to take a long-term political hit from Trump's acquittal.

What the Biden campaign is eager to say is the impeachment trial didn't harm the former vice president at all. They admit Biden was contaminated by fallout from the trial but this won't be enough to seriously derail his campaign for the party's nomination.

Instead, Biden and his fellow candidates are expected to use the acquittal verdict to energize Democrats furious at Trump's exoneration. Democratic candidates will milk the impeachment verdict for all it's worth.

"They’re all coming back with a lot of ammunition (from the impeachment),"said Ross Baker, professor of political science at Rutgers University-New Brunswick, notes USA Today.

The trial also won't have any lasting negative effects on the enthusiasm of Democratic voters.

“By the time the 2020 election comes around, impeachment will have been nine months in the past,” said Republican consultant Matt Mackowiak. “I doubt impeachment will make much difference at all in the 2020 election."

Biden's current fourth place standing in the delayed Iowa caucus with 15.8 percent of the vote in the race for state delegates as of Wednesday evening is expected to be more damaging to his presidential ambitions than any fallout from the impeachment trial.

Biden entered Iowa the clear favorite to win, according to polls, and his current fourth place standing has his campaign on damage control intended to get their movement back on track.

South Bend, Indiana mayor Pete Buttigieg currently leads the Iowa caucus with 26.7 percent of the vote and is widely expected to win when all the votes are tallied. Behind him are Vermont senator Bernie Sanders with 24.3 percent of the votes counted so far; Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) with 17.4 percent; Biden with 15.8 percent; and Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) with 12.1 percent.

Results released as of Wednesday afternoon in Iowa cover 85 percent of all precincts reporting. The delay in releasing 100 percent of the poll results, which should have occurred on the evening of February 3, was due to a technical glitch, said the Iowa Democratic Party (IDP).

Analysts noted Biden entered Iowa with the perception as being the most electable among all Democratic contenders, meaning Biden's the guy Dems see as having the best chance of beating Trump. A pre-caucus poll among Iowa Democrats by the National Election Pool (NEP), a consortium of news organizations, reveals 62 percent of Democratic Iowa caucus-goers were looking for someone that can beat Trump instead of someone that agrees with them on the issues.

On this score, Biden got 38 percent compared to Buttigieg's six percent.