AMES, Iowa (AP) — In the liberal strongholds of Des Moines’ west side and the Iowa State University campus in Ames, not once was South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg asked by voters recently about the impeachment inquiry of President Donald Trump. Buttigieg offered a nuanced view, suggesting that impeachment is a symptom of the deep divisions that would await a new president, who he argues will be tasked with uniting the country.

It’s not that the investigation into the president’s request for foreign help in his reelection effort is an afterthought for Democrats whose votes in Iowa will start the nominating process. Quite the opposite. Instead, it’s that the impeachment inquiry is so ingrained in the 2020 campaign that there’s little point in bringing it up. Democratic voters say they don’t expect that the president will be removed from office, so they are concentrating instead of selecting the strongest opponent to unseat him.To that end, Democratic voters appear to be marching more uniformly than their party’s candidates, who, as a group, have offered at times uneven responses to the prospect of an incumbent president facing impeachment while seeking reelection.

Questions to candidates about impeachment in early voting states have been often sporadic at best. There’s little point in trying to convince early primary and caucus audiences, it would seem. While polls show Americans overall divided over Trump’s impeachment and removal from office, Democrats are firmly in support of both the proceedings and the outcome.

Fully 89% of Democrats approve of the House of Representatives’ decision to conduct an impeachment inquiry, according to a recent Pew Research Center survey. Ninety-three percent think Trump has done things that are grounds for impeachment. A recent Quinnipiac poll, in addition to finding 9 in 10 Democrats expressing approval of the impeachment inquiry, found 85% of Democrats saying they think Trump should be impeached and removed from office.