Democratic congressional candidate Carolyn Bourdeaux said Tuesday that Congress should open impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump, becoming the latest contender to endorse trying to remove the Republican from office after initially being resistant to impeaching him.
The 7th District candidate, who narrowly lost her bid for the suburban Atlanta seat last year, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that she was "deeply troubled" by allegations that Trump pressured a Ukrainian leader to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden, the Democratic front-runner.
“In light of those and other instances of apparent disregard for the law, I believe Congress needs to open an impeachment inquiry,” she said.
“This is not a decision that I take lightly. But given this administration’s continued stonewalling of congressional investigators, it is only through an impeachment inquiry that the facts will be fully aired.”
For much of the year, Bourdeaux echoed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and dozens of other House Democrats who worried that impeachment was too divisive and that more information was needed before taking the extraordinary step.
But her stance has shifted after reports that Trump pressured Ukranian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate Biden and his family. Trump has acknowledged he mentioned the Bidens in a call with Zelensky, but denied he withheld military aid from the country to spur Ukraine to do his bidding.
Bourdeaux’s reconsideration of her position comes as a growing number of House Democrats in more moderate districts have joined the calls for impeachment proceedings to begin, as party leaders demand that the White House turn over documents about the allegations against Trump.
Bourdeaux, a public policy professor who teaches an ethics in government course, lost the closest U.S. House race in the nation last year to Republican U.S. Rep. Rob Woodall.
Soon after the race, he announced he would not stand for another term to represent the district, a fast-changing former Republican stronghold that covers parts of Gwinnett and Forsyth counties.
Bourdeaux quickly announced she would run again, though she faces several other Democratic rivals trying to outflank her on the party's left. Several of them, including attorney Marqus Cole, activist Nabilah Islam and state Rep. Brenda Lopez Romero have previously called for Trump's impeachment.
The five Democrats in Georgia's U.S. House delegation had avoided calls for impeachment until Tuesday, when U.S. Reps. Hank Johnson and John Lewis changed course and said they wanted to open an inquiry.
