As Congress reconvenes and Democrats contemplate if and how to proceed with an impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump, all three Austin Democrats seeking to defeat U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Austin, said Monday night they believe the House should move ahead with the historic undertaking.

Two of the three said they are ready to vote for impeachment based on what they already know, and the third said she also would vote "yes" if the investigation confirms what her gut is telling her about the president's misdeeds.

"I do think we should impeach even if it's not the right electoral strategy," said Mike Siegel, an attorney who ran last year against McCaul, now in his eighth term. Siegel lost by 4.3 percentage points, a surprisingly strong showing that has made McCaul a bigger target this time around. National Democratic operatives are working to flip the seat, along with five other GOP-held seats in Texas.

"We need to stand up for the Constitution and the separation of powers and the House of Representatives needs to stand up and do its job," Siegel said at a forum for the three candidates sponsored by the Far Northwest Progressives, a Travis County Democratic club. The forum, moderated by KXAN political reporter Phil Prazan, drew about 60 people to Charm, a Korean barbecue chicken restaurant in a strip mall at the western end of a district that stretches to the outskirts of Houston.

"I think there's a whole litany of things that are impeachable, including but not limited to obstruction of justice," said physician Pritesh Gandhi, the first candidate to answer the question.

Gandhi said that beyond the kind of specific transgressions that would meet the constitutional standard of high crimes and misdemeanors, "the biggest and most important thing I can think of is that he is a disgrace to the office of the presidency and this country deserves better."

"Right on, Pritesh," said Siegel, who went next. "Yes, I would agree to impeach. There are many categories. I mean, I wish racism was a category for high crimes and misdemeanors because the idea that he stands up for these Nazis in Charlottesville (Va.), that by itself is an impeachable offense for me."

The third candidate, Shannon Hutcheson, said that, "as a lawyer, I look at the situation, and I think the first thing that we have to do as the American people is we need to have the opportunity to have full congressional hearings on this."

"I agree with everything that Pritesh and Mike said, you know, that is my gut, that this president has obstructed justice ... we know what the Mueller report said," Hutcheson said. "But I want a thorough and complete investigation by Congress. I want public hearings. We should have witnesses come in and testify under oath so that every American can hear what they said behind closed doors to Robert Mueller."

While a majority of House Democrats have come out for impeachment, the precise pace and approach is a fraught political issue for Democrats. They have to worry about whether an effort that likely would never lead to a conviction of Trump by a Republican Senate is a constitutional obligation or a political liability at a time when they should be focused on removing Trump at the ballot box a little more than a year from now. Alternately, impeachment hearings could be seen as a way to lay out a case for not reelecting Trump.

Resignations

Five House Republicans from Texas, both in competitive and safe districts, have in recent months announced that they are not seeking reelection. McCaul, a former chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, who is now the top-ranked Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, has reaffirmed his commitment to seek a ninth term. But he has expressed a desire to serve in the Trump administration and told CNN in August that he felt he could play "a very good role" as secretary of state if Mike Pompeo should run for Senate in 2020, an ambition that Pompeo recently threw cold water on.

While Austin is a Democratic stronghold, the city is divided into six congressional districts with tentacles stretching hundreds of miles into rural areas. Five of those districts are represented by Republicans. Yet a decade since the lines were drawn, once safe districts are far less secure and McCaul's district is teaming with newcomers who have no political history with the incumbent and may be drawn to the polls 14 months from now mostly by the presidential election.

Siegel said his campaign plans to register 35,000 people who have moved into the district since the last election and who they have identified as likely Democratic voters. Siegel lost by about 13,000 votes last time.

Ambitious candidates

Perhaps the surest sign that the district is in play is the competition between three ambitious candidates — Gandhi, 37, Siegel, 41, and Hutcheson, 47 — for the party nomination.

For Democrats, the toughest stretch of the 10th Congressional District are the small towns and rural areas between the Austin and Houston metro areas, places that Siegel said had not seen a Democratic candidate for decades before his 2018 run.

"We are traveling this district, and we have been door-knocking," Hutcheson said. "And you know, I will tell you, I was down in Washington County the last week ... and we spoke to a group of women, 52 women showed up in Washington County, because they are deeply concerned and because they want to see Mike McCaul sent home to his mansion on the hill to use all of our water."

McCaul is among the wealthiest members of Congress and the American-Statesman reported last year that his sprawling West Austin home used more city-supplied water than any other single-family residence in 2017.