So You Want to Run for Office? Here’s How to Get Started.

  • Feb 24, 2017
  • Andrea Dew Steele
  • Elle

The day after Donald Trump’s inauguration, millions of women around the world took to the streets to make their voices heard. And at protest after protest after that, demonstrators heard one clear message from organizers: This is just the beginning. Ever since Trump won the presidential election, many women’s groups have reported floods of people expressing interest in running for office, and that number has only increased since his inauguration.

It’s about time, because the situation right now is nothing short of dire. At the beginning of 2017, women were just 19.1 percent of incoming members of Congress, and were just 21 percent of the Senate. Women made up only 24.6 percent of state legislatures, 10 percent of all governors, and 18.4 percent of mayors of cities with more than 30,000 residents, according to Emerge America, a group that recruits Democratic women to run for office.