Act Locally

While the formal impeachment process must be conducted by Congress, local and state governments can play an important role: they can pass resolutions calling on the U.S. House of Representatives to begin the impeachment process. These resolutions can help build public support for impeachment, and make Representatives understand that their constituents favor starting the impeachment process. Representatives and their staff follow the local political mood, and resolutions in support of impeachment in their home districts and states may help influence them.

The key point is that you are not asking your local or state government to itself begin an impeachment investigation. Rather, you are asking your local or state government to pass a resolution calling on the U.S. House of Representatives to open an impeachment investigation.

We recommend using  our model resolution.
We also suggest you download our Guide for Local and State Resolutions in Support of Impeachment [PDF]

Getting Started

Where should I start—my city/town, my county, my state legislature . . . ?

Any of these are good, but it’s probably easiest to start with your hometown. These guidelines apply to any level of local or state government.

How do I find out whom I should contact in my local and state government?

For your local government, visit https://www.usa.gov/local-governments. For your state representatives, visit https://openstates.org/find_your_legislator/.

What is the process for passing a resolution?

It’s different in all 50 states and in local governments around the country.

What should I say?

You are asking your local or state government to pass a resolution calling on the U.S. House of Representatives to open an impeachment investigation.

While your local or state government cannot itself participate directly in the impeachment process, it can almost certainly pass a resolution asking Congress to open an impeachment investigation. It is fairly common for local and state governments to pass resolutions asking Congress to take various actions.

What should the resolution say?

We recommend starting with our model local resolution, although of course it can be modified as needed.

On Our Way! 

In almost a year, sixteen cities and towns have gone on record to pass our proposed model resolution calling for Congress to launch an impeachment investigation of President Trump.

A month after Trump’s inauguration, on February 21, 2017,  the the City of Richmond, California unanimously passed a resolution calling on the United States House of Representatives to start an impeachment investigation of the President. Nearby, in Alameda, California, a group of citizen activists introduced and passed our resolution to their City Council on Tuesday, March 7, 2017.  On that same day, our resolution was introduced and passed in Charlotte, Vermont, at their Town Hall Meeting Day.

Here is a list of the communities that have passed our resolution:

  1. Richmond, CA 2/21/2017
  2. Alameda, CA 3/7/2017
  3. Charlotte, VT 3/7/2017
  4. Berkeley, CA 3/28/2017
  5. Cambridge, MA 4/4/2017
  6. Leverett MA 4/30/2017
  7. Los Angeles, 5/5/2017
  8. Pelham 5/6/2017
  9. Amherst, MA 5/11/2017
  10. Brookline, 5/27/2017 
  11. Oakland, CA 6/27/2017
  12. Santa Cruz, CA 6/27/2017
  13. West Hollywood 6/29/2017
  14. Newton, MA 7/10/2017
  15. Essex County, NJ 9/18/2017
  16. San Francisco, 10/31/2017
  17. Weston, MA, 11/28/2017

Will your city be next? Email us at [email protected] to start organizing.

For a full list of campaign resources, click here.

Resources

From Our Allies