Women are running for office in record numbers

The Hill: Women are running for office in record numbers

By John Bowden

More and more women are running for office at every level after the election of President Trump shocked many in November, according to numbers from top advocacy organizations.

EMILY's List and She Should Run both report record numbers of interested women considering runs for public office at the state, local and federal levels, according to Axios.

More than 15,000 women have contacted She Should Run, a nonpartisan organization, since November, according to the Axios report. In addition, more than 20,000 women have contacted EMILY's list, which supports the campaigns of pro-choice Democratic women.

Many of these women have pointed to Trump as their motivation for getting involved in politics. Some oppose the Trump administration's agenda, while others see his unconventional path to the White House as inspiration.

“He fuels a conversation that there's no one path to the White House, there's no one background,” She Should Run's co-founder and CEO Erin Loos Cutraro said on CNN.

In a statement, EMILY's List president Stephanie Schriock said that the organization was gearing up to support the “unprecedented” surge of potential candidates.
 
“This is a surge of grassroots energy unlike anything we've ever seen. We've spent more than 30 years preparing for this kind of moment, and we're ready to channel this energy into wins for women up and down the ballot, not just in 2018 but for the years and generations to come,” Schriock said.

She Should Run announced in July that it was launching a national campaign to achieve gender parity among America's elected officials by the year 2030. That involves galvanizing women to fill 250,000 of the nation's about 500,000 elected positions, according to the group.

“We really felt like it was important to make it clear that we're in it for the long haul,” Cutraro told Axios in July. “We know it's not going to happen overnight.”