No doubt encouraged by our heinous, misogynist leadership, a record-breaking number of women have filed candidacy papers to run for United States House of Representatives seats in the upcoming midterm elections.
The Associated Press reported on Thursday that 309 women across the United States have filed to run, beating out the previous record of 298, which was set during the 2012 election. And, more good news: so far Democratic women candidates running in the 2018 election cycle outnumber Republican women candidates 3-to-1, which is the highest ratio recorded in a congressional election year dating back to 1992, according to Mother Jones.
The last comparable surge of female candidates occurred in 1992, after Anita Hill testified against Clarence Thomas, alleging he’d sexually harassed her, during his confirmation hearing for the Supreme Court. As a result, female representation in the House rose by more than 60 percent. But in the past few years, the number of women in Congress has mostly stagnated, as has the number of women competing for those seats, according to the AP. Although in 2017, women held 19 percent of the seats on Congress, and that was a record.
The AP also reported that many women are running for congressional seats that have never been held by a woman before. And in more than half the states, candidate filing periods are still open, so the number of women who will be running is only expected to grow.