Women march into American politics

After the 2016 election of Donald Trump, a man who campaigned on sexist, racist rhetoric, an unprecedented number of women have decided to run for political office across the United States, many of them for the first time.
The Women’s March, on the day after Trump’s inauguration in January 2017, can be seen now as the first shot fired by women seeking to change the gender dynamic in American politics. One year later, over 30,000 women interested in running for political office have contacted Emily’s List, an organization that has worked for over three decades to help recruit and elect pro-choice Democratic candidates to office. Previously, they have been used to hearing from less than 1000.
Progressive women want to become lawmakers not only to re-establish women’s reproductive rights, but also to address gender pay disparity. And they want to be in the position to take advantage of the powerful #MeToo movement to finally deal with the persistent culture of sexual assault and sexual harassment in the country.

As of 2018, women represent only 20% of the members of the U.S. Congress. This seems very likely to change after the 2018-midterm elections in November.

John Trotter has followed two women so far, who were both first-time candidates at the primary elections for the midterm elections of November 6th: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who won the Democratic primary in New York’s 14th congressional district covering parts of the Bronx and Queens, and Kerri Harris, who was candidate in Delaware and failed to unseat Democratic U.S. Senator Tom Carper.