Time magazine revealed its newest cover yesterday, and it features nearly 50 first-time female candidates who say they were inspired to run for office following the election of Donald Trump and the 2017 Women’s March.
Time calls the candidates The Avengers, and a corresponding story by journalist Charlotte Alter explains how after marching, these women have taken politics by the reins and launched campaigns of their own. Alter also examines how a new grassroots movement has encouraged women to run for office in droves and empowered them to become more politically engaged in the Trump era.
“Call it payback, call it a revolution, call it the Pink Wave, inspired by marchers in their magenta hats, and the activism that followed. There is an unprecedented surge of first-time female candidates, overwhelmingly Democratic, running for offices big and small, from the U.S. Senate and state legislatures to local school boards,” Alter writes in the piece.
Pictured on the cover, and highlighted in the story, are women such as Lauren Underwood, a nurse with a heart condition who says she decided to challenge Illinois Congressman Randy Hultgren after he broke his promise to protect pre-existing conditions in a Republican healthcare bill, and Mai Khanh Tran, a pediatrician running for Congress in California.
Recent data shows that there is a significant new wave of political interest from women. In the article, Alter tracks stats from the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University that show that at least 79 women have thought about runs for governor in 2018—that’s about twice as much as a record previously set in 1994. Political action organizations like Emily’s List, which helps train and elect prochoice Democratic women, have also reported an increase in women who have reached out to them, interested in campaigns.
“In dozens of interviews with Time. progressive women described undergoing a metamorphosis. In 2016 they were ordinary voters,” Alter writes. “In 2017 they became activists, spurred by the bitter defeat of the first major female presidential candidate at the hands of a self-described pussy grabber. Now, in 2018, these doctors and mothers and teachers and executives are jumping into the arena and bringing new energy to a Democratic Party sorely in need of fresh faces.”
The new cover was published just weeks after Time revealed its 2017 Person of the Year: the women who started the #MeToo movement and spoke out about instances of sexual misconduct in Hollywood. It’s exciting to see Time continuing to put the spotlight on women spurring change across the country.