2008 Women of the Year honoree Hillary Clinton spent much of midterms season campaigning for Democrats running for Congress, including Florida politician Donna Shalala and Chicago gubernatorial candidate J.B. Prtizker. So it’s really no wonder she surprised the crowd at Glamour‘s Women of the Year awards for an inspiring speech on the importance of women running for office.

Read the powerful message she delivered to the crowd, below:

“Congratulations to all of the Glamour Women of the Year being honored tonight—don’t they inspire us and give us hope about the future?

“This week, exactly two years ago, was a rough one. But, you know, my personal disappointment wasn’t so much about what happened, but how do we create even more opportunity for all the people in America. ‘An America that’s hopeful, inclusive and big-hearted,’ as I said afterward. That remains my mission today.

“In that same speech, I told little girls that they deserved every chance and opportunity to pursue their own dreams. But I didn’t realize how many women were listening as well. And many of those women decided that they were going to get involved in politics, including running for public office. Maybe we didn’t crack that highest, hardest ceiling, but we did charge straight through the wall and into the arena.

“In 2018, women brushed themselves off and ran in record-breaking numbers: Just think, 233 for Congress, 16 for governor, and more than 3,300 for seats in state legislatures. And what was so great was that these women came from a variety of backgrounds, from military veterans to teachers to bartenders to small business owners. They ran grassroots campaigns, many of them as first-time-ever candidates, and each of them fought for the priorities of their local communities: seeking fully funded public education, justice system reform, environmental protection, an unprejudiced immigration system, economic equality, and so much more.

“From lifetime politicos to first-time candidates, busy, busy, people, busy executives and busy moms, women facing men and women facing each other, women went all in. Win or lose, their races really, energized us, and encouraged even more Americans of all kinds to run for public office, to get civically involved.

“Think about this the winners included a number of firsts: Debra Haaland and Sharice Davids, the first Native American women elected to Congress. Right? And what about Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar, the first Muslim women ever elected to Congress; Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the youngest woman ever elected to Congress; and Lucy McBath, a woman who I got to know well in the 2016 campaign who turned her grief of losing her son to gun violence to a movement to commons sense gun reform. She helped turn mourning into a movement, then she won a seat once held by Newt Gingrich. To those of you who think it’s impossible to make possible we have lots of examples from last week that now we just have to try. Just before I came on, I heard that the race in Arizona was called for Kyrsten Sinema.

“Can we please offer some thunderous applause for them, and for all of the women who ran this year? And for the women who will follow their lead and run for office in 2020…maybe some of them are in this room tonight. I hope that you are. Because we need you. We need you so much. I think people got a burst of energy from the victories from last week. I will be sure to continue to encourage a lot of you and encourage particularly young women and everyone who wants to see positive change to go ahead, get involved, and maybe even run for office. And may the best candidates win.”

Find more inspiring moments from this year’s Glamour Women of the Year Awards here.

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