David A. Hopkins, Columnist

Trump’s Surprising Legacy: More Female Candidates — in Both Parties

Republican and Democratic women are running for office in increasing numbers, and 2024 could be the biggest year yet.

September 26, 2022 at 11:30 AM UTC

David A. Hopkins is an associate professor of political science at Boston College and the author of "Red Fighting Blue: How Geography and Electoral Rules Polarize American Politics."

The beginning of the current surge of activism.
Photographer: Kevin Mazur/WireImage

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Donald Trump’s upset victory over Hillary Clinton in 2016 inspired a surge in political activism among Democratic women. Six years later, that energy remains mostly intact — and has spread to the Republican Party as well.

Beginning with the Women’s March in 2017, held on Trump’s first full day as president, the anti-Trump “resistance” movement spoke with a distinctly female voice. Scholars and journalists who examined grassroots liberal politics during the Trump years observed a proliferation of women-led citizen networks dedicated to defeating the president and his Republican allies.