A record number of women are running for positions in the U.S. House of Representatives this year, according to estimates from the Associated Press Thursday. An increasing number of women in politics can not only been seen in the federal government, but in local governments too.
Most of these women are Democrats inspired to run after President Donald Trump won the 2016 presidential election. President Trump’s win was not only one that defeated Hillary Clinton, the first female presidential nominee of a major party, but also influenced hundreds of thousands of women to march on the streets of Washington, D.C. the day after Trump’s inauguration in January 2017 — and again this year. Republican women, too, make up a portion of this record-breaking number of new female politicians, the AP reported.
As of Thursday, 309 women have filed papers to run for seats in the House, which, along with the rest of Congress, is predominately filled with men.
Male candidates still outnumber female ones in House races this year, the AP reported, and women will still have to win the seats to make a substantial impact in the House.
In the time since Trump was elected, women have snatched several wins in elections on the local, state and national level around the country. Danica Roe became the first openly transgender person to be elected to the Virginia General Assembly when she won the general election on Nov. 7, 2017, and Vi Lyles became Charlotte’s first-ever African-American, female mayor.
Female candidates are also setting records in a number of other political realms. As the AP noted, 40 women are running for gubernatorial races around the country — up from a record 34 candidates in 1994. In Texas, too, a record number of women are running for office — including in races for congressional seats or local seats.
Tiffany Shedd, a Republican from Arizona said, in this article, that she’s glad to see so many women running, even if most of them are on the other side of the aisle.
“I hope that we eventually live in a world where there are no articles written about that because it’s no longer a thing,” she told the AP.
Forty women are running so far in governors’ races, a total that already surpassed the previous record of 34 in 1994. And 29 women are on ballots for U.S. Senate races, a number that will grow as filing deadlines approach in more states. The record number of female Senate candidates is 40, set in 2016.
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