Happy New Year!
OK, you survived 2017.
Still want to sit on the sidelines? Don’t think politics affects you? We’ll say this—if you don’t want to be involved or don’t want to pay attention to what’s going on in your country, kindly stand aside because the 2018 election express train is about to blow through this country. And it will most likely be a woman driving the engine.
It was probably not the accomplishment Donald Trump had hoped for, but women have been awakened. And the political landscape could soon be changed forever. Women make up more than half of the population but are only twenty percent of the Congress. Maybe not for long.
As of Mid-December, there were 378 women running for seats in the House in 2018, a huge increase since the last election when 161 women ran. But the numbers are a little misleading. In a few vulnerable GOP districts, Brookings found many women running for just a few seats.
“But what if they are all jumping in against only a few potentially vulnerable incumbents? For example, eight Democratic challengers have filed FEC reports in the races against the incumbent, Jeff Denham, in California’s 10th district. Seven are running against Dana Rohrabacher in California-48, seven against Peter Roskam in Illinois-6, and seven against John Faso in New York-19. The most these 29 challengers can do in the general election is defeat four incumbents.”
It’s still early and indications are that even more women may be filing soon. Emily’s List, a pro-choice political action committee that aims to elect Democratic women to office, reports more than 22,000 potential candidates have reached out to the organization to learn more.
From The New York Times:
Celinda Lake, a pollster for Democratic candidates, said: “I think we will see more women running, more women voting for women, more women turning out to vote. It makes women change agents and a powerful part of the formula for 2018 races.”
It all began with the Women’s March, the day after Donald Trump was inaugurated a year ago. Now organizers plan to outdo themselves with more marches across the country the weekend of January 20-21. More than 250 events are planned.
We think 2018 will be the Year of the Woman in politics and we’d like to hear from you. From now until November, we will be closely following this movement. But we can’t do it alone. If you’re running for office or involved in a race, or just read about interesting happenings in your part of the country, please let us know what’s going on! Comment on Facebook or email us. We will be keeping you updated on this story throughout the year.
