Nearly 60 Democrats voted to advance a resolution to impeach President Donald Trump on Wednesday after Democratic Rep. Al Green forced a vote in the House on the issue.

The impeachment resolution fell far short of passing, but Wednesday’s vote gave 58 Democrats, many for the first time, the opportunity to publicly indicate their support for removing Trump from office. Four Democrats — Reps. Terri Sewell, Carol Shea-Porter, Joaquin Castro, and Marc Veasey — voted present.

Green has been actively pushing for Trump’s impeachment since May, worrying many Democrats, including House Democratic leadership, who took the unusual step of putting out a joint statement opposing their own member's resolution on Wednesday. Democrats have urged members to wait on Congress and special counsel Robert Mueller to finish their investigations before taking such a drastic step.

Green used what's called a privileged resolution to bring up his bill filing articles of impeachment, which allows him to force a vote in the House within two days without having to get agreement from House Speaker Paul Ryan first.

Green didn’t quite get his wish, however. At Republicans’ direction, the House instead voted on a “motion to table” his resolution — essentially killing it with the support of 364 members, including two-thirds of Democrats in the House. While that meant that Green ultimately didn’t get a straight up-or-down vote on impeachment, the vote forced members of both parties to go on the record about removing Trump from office.

In their joint statement Wednesday, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer said they agreed that Trump has "made statements and taken actions that are beyond the pale for most Americans." But they argued that the party needs to focus on preventing Republicans from passing their tax reform bill and allow investigators looking into possible collusion with Russia to continue their work.

"Now is not the time to consider articles of impeachment," Pelosi and Hoyer said in the statement.

Despite their statement, nearly one-third of House Democrats voted with Green to keep his impeachment resolution alive on Wednesday. "I was a little surprised by that,” Washington Rep. Pramila Jayapal said, of how many of her colleagues joined her in supporting Green's resolution. “I think it reflects on the seriousness of how people feel.”

Rep. Al Green, wearing an American flag tie, told reporters Wednesday he hadn't been sure how the vote would turn out either. "Going into it, I was sure of one thing: I had one vote," he said. "I didn't lobby anybody, I didn't ask anybody, but I'm grateful to those who did vote with the Constitution."