How the Virginia congresswomen who helped start the impeachment inquiry are explaining it to constituents

Reps. Abigail Spanberger, Elaine Luria and Jennifer Wexton represent districts that lean Republican. But that doesn’t mean they are backing down from talking about impeachment.

The Virginia Democratic congresswomen who helped lead the party towards impeaching President Donald Trump haven’t been in the spotlight during the two weeks of public hearings that have gripped the nation. But that doesn’t mean they aren’t talking about the topic.

Reps. Abigail Spanberger, Elaine Luria and Jennifer Wexton might not be on the House Intelligence Committee, but they have been back home in their districts, explaining the controversial decision each made to support the impeachment inquiry despite come from Republican-leaning districts.

Luria took the most novel approach, releasing a two minute video on Veteran’s Day that focused solely on her decision to support an impeachment inquiry of the president. In it the Virginia Beach congresswoman talked about the oath she took throughout her Naval career and upon becoming a member of Congress to protect and defend the Constitution.

“I didn’t come to Washington to impeach the president, but I didn’t spend 20 years in the Navy to allow our Constitution to be trampled on,” Luria says in the video. And if she loses her seat for that decision? “I don’t care, because I did the right thing.”

Spanberger had a townhall in her Richmond district last weekend, where much of the discussion centered on impeachment. She told local TV station WWBT that the inquiry is “an important reason to ensure people have the ability to ask questions.”

“This is about establishing what is appropriate be it this president, the next or one five terms from now,” Spanberger told constituents. “We have to get to the bottom of this.”

And Wexton got plenty of impeachment questions in her townhall last weekend, but emphasized that funding the government was her top concern.

 “[Impeachment] is something where I am one of 435 people in the country who can do something about it. I don’t think it is OK for the president to sacrifice vital national security funding for his own personal political gain,” Wexton said, according to Loudoun Now.

But she said her “top priority” was preventing another government shutdown.

“The impacts were devastating for our region,” Wexton said.