Rep. Brenda Lawrence (D-MI-14). Screen grab via WDIV.

11/26/19 – 12:15 pm: Scroll to the bottom for an important update!
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The House Democrat from Michigan you hear most often about is Squad Member Rashida Tlaib, who represents the 13th district. But while Tlaib is 100% on board with impeaching President Trump (and has been since day one), another Michigan Democrat from a neighboring district just announced this week that she no longer supports impeachment, stating she’d prefer he be censured instead:

Michigan Democratic Rep. Brenda Lawrence, a prominent supporter of Kamala Harris who has previously supported the impeachment inquiry into President Trump, has abruptly announced that she no longer saw any “value” in the process and called for her fellow Democrats to throw their support behind a symbolic censure resolution.

“We are so close to an election,” Lawrence said Sunday on a Michigan radio program. “I will tell you, sitting here knowing how divided this country is, I don’t see the value of taking him out of office. But I do see the value of putting down a marker saying his behavior is not acceptable.”

Listen to her remarks, which were made at the 26 minute mark of the No BS News Hour radio show with Charlie LeDuff on Sunday, below:

Adam Schiff FAILED to convince a Democrat Rep in a D+30 district that @realDonaldTrump should be impeached.

Dem Rep. Brenda Lawrence: “We are so close to an election…I don’t see the value of taking him out of office”#StopTheMadness #StopTheSchiffShow pic.twitter.com/6QNBFvIV16

— Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) November 26, 2019

In other words, she believes the voters and not Congress should decide Trump’s political fate.

The significance of Lawrence’s reversal cannot be overstated. While she’s a Congressional representative from a swing state, her district is considered a “safe seat” for Democrats. In 2014, 2016, and 2018 she won by overwhelming majorities. So unlike the Democrats who are in competitive races next year, she faces little to no dilemma in terms of which side she should take.

She’s also no friend of Trump’s in any way, shape, or form as the below interview she did from the NAACP convention in Detroit in July makes clear:

As I wrote yesterday, the public impeachment inquiry hearings have been a disaster for Democrats when it comes to independent voters, which is a very big deal when you consider those voters often decide crucial elections in competitive races.

Though Lawrence’s district isn’t one of those, many more are – and they’ve been targets of a massive anti-impeachment ad campaign from the GOP and GOP-affiliated groups over the last several weeks.

The ads and the hearings themselves have been so effective at turning off swing voters from what Democrats are doing that there are rumors floating around in Washington, DC that Pelosi might be shifting gears towards a censure effort along the lines of what Lawrence talked about in her interview.

Will Lawrence’s reversal be the start of a wave of House Democrats switching gears on impeachment? Stay tuned.

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** UPDATE ** Lawrence has just reversed course again:

New: Rep. Brenda Lawrence (D-Michigan) flips back, resumes her support for impeaching Trump. https://t.co/32lwro3uo0 pic.twitter.com/zJ49FHHC7V

— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) November 26, 2019

She must have taken some major heat from the House Democratic leadership over flipping her stance. Wonder which one got to her?

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— Based in North Carolina, Sister Toldjah is a former liberal and a 16+ year veteran of blogging with an emphasis on media bias, social issues, and the culture wars. Read her Red State archives here. Connect with her on Twitter. –