October 21 2026 - 6:00pm
The Democrats are slated to have a strong midterm next month. Election forecasts show they are strong favorites to win back the House, and increasingly likely to wrest control of the Senate too. Naturally, a big question that follows is what Democrats will do with their power if they win one chamber or both. In theory, they would more or less follow the agenda their leaders have shared with the public: focusing on tackling cost-of-living issues and conducting oversight of the Trump administration.
But some in the party seem keen on going even further. Yesterday it was reported that a growing chorus of Democrats want to begin impeachment proceedings against Secretary of War Pete Hegseth. This would be a colossal mistake for several reasons.
First: no one beyond a segment of the Democratic base is clamoring for Hegseth’s impeachment. Voters generally hold him in low regard, and a September poll found that just 32% approved of his job performance, compared with 57% who disapproved. But there is little evidence that they support Democrats ousting him.
Moreover, impeachment drives often slow down other legislative activity. Not only does it consume each chamber’s time and resources, but it greatly reduces goodwill between the parties. At a time when a large majority of voters say they want their leaders to get back to working in a bipartisan manner, and advance policies on behalf of the country, impeachment is likely to work in the opposite direction.
In fact, voters have made clear what they want to see their leaders work on: improving the economy and tackling cost-of-living issues. These were among the top issues that brought the Democrats down in 2024; meanwhile, the GOP’s struggles in resolving them may cost them the midterms. The party’s candidates and leadership have paid lip service to these issues, but they will struggle to regain the trust of voters if they set this part of their program aside to pursue partisan political battles.
Then there’s the reality that impeachment is simply highly unlikely to succeed. Just two cabinet officials have ever been impeached in US history, and neither was removed from office. Removal requires a vote of two-thirds in the Senate. If the effort to remove Trump following January 6 failed to garner that level of support, there’s no reason to think it will succeed now. So if Democrats decide to pursue impeachment, they’re choosing to waste precious time and resources.
Of course, there is nothing wrong with conducting oversight of the administration given that levels of corruption in the White House are off the charts. But responsible oversight would entail tasking a limited number of representatives on the appropriate committees with investigating wrongdoing, not making it the business of the entire chamber.
So Democrats will have to reckon with all of this if they take control of Congress. At present, their favorability rating is actually lower than that of both Trump and the Republican Party. If they win back one or both chambers in November, it will be because voters were upset at the GOP and cast a vote against them, rather than showing confidence in Democrats.
The reality is that Democrat politicians will have a choice if they win back power in November: they can be reactive, or they can be proactive. Either they can spend the bulk of their time fighting losing battles, or they can demonstrate to voters why they made the right decision in putting them back in power. They can work to hold the administration to account while also finding places to engage in bipartisan negotiations.
Impeachment is clearly antithetical to the latter, and the party’s leaders would be wise to put the kibosh on that effort before it gains any more steam.
