More women than ever running for U.S. House

The number of women running for the U.S. House of Representatives set a record Thursday, the vast majority of them Democrats motivated by angst over President Donald Trump and policies of the Republican-controlled Congress.

Their ranks will continue to grow, with candidate filing deadlines still to come in more than half the states. In Florida, the deadline to qualify for federal offices is May 4.

In many places, women are running for congressional seats that have never had a female representative.

“It’s about time,” said Kara Eastman of Nebraska, one of two Democrats vying to challenge a GOP incumbent in a district centered in Omaha.

A surge of women into this year’s midterm elections had been expected since the Women’s March demonstrations nationwide just after Trump’s inauguration in January 2017. Numbers analyzed by The Associated Press show that momentum is continuing.

After Virginia released its candidate list Thursday, a total of 309 women from the two major parties have filed candidacy papers to run for the House. That tops the previous record of 298 in 2012.

The AP analyzed data going back to 1992 from the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University and did its own review of candidate information released by the states.