The release of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report made clear that Donald Trump obstructed justice, leading many Americans across the political spectrum, and a number of Democratic presidential candidates, to conclude he deserves to be impeached. House Democrats know that President Trump is unfit for office and that they hold the power to begin impeachment proceedings. Yet instead of acting on the merits of the situation, they appear consumed with whether or not they will suffer politically for it.

At the moment, House Democrats led by Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, insist that any action toward impeachment — however warranted or urgent — would be too costly politically. This calculation not only answers the wrong question; it’s unsupported by the facts. The politics of impeaching the president favors Democrats, and they should move forward with confidence.

There is simply no historical precedent for impeachment leading to serious political peril.

Those trying to make this case point to President Bill Clinton, asserting that voters punished the GOP for an impeachment they viewed as overreach. It’s true that Republicans lost seats in the 1998 midterm elections while pushing the impeachment issue. Yet the loss of five seats in the House still left them in control of Congress. Two years later, voters kept the Republican majorities intact and delivered them the White House. And while Clinton’s popularity rose after impeachment, keep in mind that his approval ratings never dropped below 60% over the entirety of the investigation. Trump, on the other hand, has never seen approval ratings above 46%.

If impeaching a popular president didn’t cost the GOP significantly, then Democrats should not fear impeaching a deeply unpopular one.

Many also feel there is no point to impeachment while the GOP holds a majority in the Senate. The Republican votes required for his removal, they say, will never appear. That’s a discussion that must include the opinion of the American people after they watch televised impeachment hearings.

In any case, if Senate Republicans want to stand with Trump, then they should be forced to do so on the record. They should be called to account for supporting a president who has willfully obstructed justice, taken payoffs, and lied brazenly to the public — the proof on all counts is there. During the last two years, the vast majority of Americans made clear they do not want representatives who are blindly devoted to Trump. Instead, they want him the president held accountable for his actions. That’s why Democrats now have a House majority.

Even so, the process’ outcome is far from certain. Just a little over 30% of Americans wanted President Richard Nixon impeached and removed when the House Judiciary Committee began its inquiry — a lower share of the electorate than those who support Trump’s impeachment today. But after uncovering evidence, hearing sworn testimony on live television, and giving the public a chance to judge Nixon’s wrongdoing for themselves, support for his ouster soared to 57%. The American people left the GOP with a simple choice: continue to protect Nixon or save their own political futures. They chose self-preservation and still lost 52 seats in the next election.

Nixon’s downfall offers an important lesson: the impeachment process itself can sway public opinion and force a reckoning among the president’s partisan defenders. The stage is set for such a shift today.

Most Americans strongly dislike President Trump, including some 60% of independents who disapprove of his presidency, and 30% of conservatives who say they won’t vote for him in 2020. Those feelings have been baked in for some time, and they intensify when developments such as the congressional hearing of Trump’s personal attorney Michael Cohen or release of the redacted Mueller report dominate the news.

The impeachment process would remind these voters why they don’t approve of this president, which may lead them to back his immediate removal and oppose those who stand in the way. Rather than push these voters away from the Democrats’ big tent, we can show them a home in it.

The president’s base isn’t growing, but Trump voters are likely to be energized in 2020 regardless. And with fewer swing voters than ever before, the Democratic Party needs to focus most on turning out its own base. More than 90% of Democrats disapprove of Trump, and 70% of them support impeachment. Seeing the party hold him accountable could encourage a 2020 presidential election turnout that mirrors 2018’s historic level for a mid-term election.

A missed chance at impeachment, on the other hand, could leave Democrats hurting long-term. Historically, it is difficult to beat a sitting president, and those previous re-election cycles didn’t feature a ramped up Russian influence campaign. House Democrats who oppose impeachment today could thus convince the rest of the caucus to punt the question to the 2020 election, only to see Trump win. If that happens, voters may hold those representatives responsible, and block their ambitions to run for higher office in the future — or even hold their seats.

For two years, members of Congress said we needed to wait for Mueller’s report before making any judgments on impeachment. We now know that Mueller’s team exposed at least 140 contacts between the Kremlin and the Trump campaign, brought 199 criminal charges, handed down 37 indictments or guilty pleas, and earned at least five prison sentences.

Special Counsel Mueller laid out strong evidence that Trump obstructed justice, and (as he considered himself bound by Justice Department guidance against indicting a sitting president) invoked Congress’s responsibility to enforce checks and balances to ensure no one branch of government becomes too powerful.

In a perfect world, our representatives would follow the U.S. Constitution and stand up for the rule of law simply because it is the right thing to do.

In the real world, caution and calculation are always at play. In this case, these two dynamics don’t have to be at odds. Impeaching Trump is the best chance we have of shifting public opinion decisively against him. It isn’t just the right thing to do — it’s good politics, too.

Tom Steyer, a former hedge fund manager, is the founder of NextGenAmerica and Need to Impeach, which seeks to remove President Trump from office. He is a resident of San Francisco.