These Numbers Show That Trump's Presidency Has Inspired More Women To Run For Office In The US
Since he stepped foot in the White House in January of this year — and even the months leading up to it — women have strongly campaigned against Trump and everything that he stands for, namely his racist, sexist, misogynist, transphobic, xenophobic, predatory mannerisms, and the matching agenda that he is slowly putting into place in the United States. Hillary Clinton, as we all well know by now, was the first woman ever to be in the main presidential race, and she genuinely had lots of us believing that we'd be seeing the first female POTUS in our lifetime.
Her campaign, thrown in with the general fuckery that is Trump's time in office has helped to open up the floodgates and prove to women that there can — and should — be a seat for them at the table when it comes to politics. Much to Trump's belief, politics is no longer just a man's game. As much as it is mainly Trump's moves as President — and as total douche even prior to his campaign — that's getting record numbers of women involved in politics, his journey to his own presidency (i.e. zero political background) is inspiring women to realise that there's not just one route to the White House. As much as, unlike Trump, most women will lose in their first attempt at running for office, the conversation that is being built around women creating a place for themselves in American politics will be a loud statement.
The proof is in the pudding, well in the numbers. Here are just a few that indicate that more women are rising up and ready to take on politics:
920 women contacted Emily's List about standing for election in 2016's entire cycle. 19,000 have reached out since Trump's election.
The average number of annual enquiries to the She Should Run group is 1,800. Since the 2016 election, there have been over 15,000.
Applications to Emerge America training courses for female candidates have gone up 87% from 2016 to 2017.
The number of women standing for the Virginia General Assembly has gone up 60%, compared to the last time all seats were up for election.
51 women are on the state ballot from major parties for the Virginia House of Delegates. 43 of them (that's nearly 85%) are looking to represent the Democratic party.
Out of the 43 Democratic candidates, 26 of them are standing in their first ever public election.
With these incredible figures, there's no slowing down for the record-breaking number of women who are trying to take Trump down. And, sadly for him, one of the only people that he can blame for getting so many women in the political sphere so quickly after his election is himself. We can't wait to see more women rise up to restore America back to it's best (basically any time that Donald Trump wasn't president.) Keep going, ladies!
