The moderate Democrats know the odds of such an outcome are slim. Democratic leaders are confident that both articles of impeachment — which were publicly unveiled Tuesday morning — will have the necessary support on the floor, and they expect to lose few of their members.

The group of centrists is also far short of the roughly 18 votes needed to block impeachment on the floor, and any censure resolution would be nearly impossible to sell to the caucus at this point, as Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her leadership team have already settled on impeaching the president.

Democrats remain united on impeachment, with just two in the caucus on record opposing the House’s impeachment inquiry: Reps. Collin Peterson (D-Minn.) and Jeff Van Drew (D-N.J.), who both sit in districts carried by Trump in 2016.

And Pelosi herself has previously publicly ruled out censure.

“I think censure is just a way out. If you want to go, you gotta go,” she told reporters in June. “If the goods are there, you must impeach. Censure is nice, but it is not commensurate with the violations of the Constitution should we decide that’s the way to go.”

Still, several of the moderate Democrats have discussed the possibility of censure privately for weeks, mostly in informal conversations on the floor or in smaller settings. But the conversations ramped up as top Democrats announced they were moving ahead with articles of impeachment this week.

The Trump-district Democrats say they are increasingly worried that a lengthy Senate trial — which could stretch into the spring — will result in an even more polarizing 2020 campaign.

Some of the Democrats involved have quietly reached out to centrist House Republicans in recent days to see whether they would be willing to censure Trump, according to multiple lawmakers, including in conversations on the House floor.

But while some Republicans privately acknowledge that censure would be a much tougher vote than impeachment, they doubt they will be confronted with that choice.

And unlike when Democrats floated censure during the Clinton impeachment, Republicans in the House and Senate are not actively looking for an escape hatch like censure.

The GOP has largely parroted Trump’s argument that he did nothing wrong in trying to pressure Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden. House Republican leaders are expecting few, if any, defections on the House floor.

“I don’t think [moderate Democrats] have enough to block impeachment. 10 to 12 max. But they’re working to raise it,” said one GOP lawmaker, who has discussed censure with some Democrats. “And [they’re] obviously reaching out to Republicans to see if they would join them.”

