Sen. Doug Jones, D-Ala., has announced that will vote to convict President Donald Trump on both articles of impeachment, Politico reported on Wednesday.
“Senators are elected to make tough choices,” Jones said in a statement. “We are required to study the facts of each issue before us and exercise our independent judgment in keeping with the oaths we take. The gravity of this moment, the seriousness of the charges, and the implications for future presidencies and Congresses all contributed to the difficulty with which I have arrived at my decision,"
Jones, who was victorious in a special election in 2017 against GOP challenger Roy Moore, is the most vulnerable Democratic senator up for election this November and was seen as a possible vote to acquit the president due to Trump’s popularity in his state.
But Jones, a former prosecutor, said “I did not run for Senate hoping to participate in the impeachment trial of a duly-elected President, but I cannot and will not shrink from my duty to defend the Constitution and to do impartial justice," according to The Hill.
Last week, Jones indicated he could split his vote when he told USA Today that he was deliberating about the House manager's second article of impeachment concerning obstruction of Congress.
However, Jones said that he concluded that “after careful consideration of the evidence developed in the hearings, the public disclosures, the legal precedents, and the trial, I believe the president deliberately and unconstitutionally obstructed Congress by refusing to cooperate with the investigation in any way," The Hill reported.