Political science scholarship argues that women's underrepresentation in American politics stems from a persistent shortage of female candidates. Women are less likely to run because they often perceive individual and structural obstacles that negatively impact their electoral interest. Such barriers remain intact, yet thousands of women have signaled their interest in running for office since the 2016 election by participating in candidate training programs (CTPs). Though running for office is not commonly defined as an activist activity, this article argues that theories of collective action and movement mobilization, rather than those focusing on the psychological aspects of candidate emergence, are better equipped to explain the recent increase of electoral interest. Using EMILY's List—an elite political entity that began as a grassroots social movement organization—as a case, this article integrates scholarship from sociology and political science to examine how feminist activist organizing can impact women's interest in running for public office. I first review the research on women's candidate emergence and CTPs before discussing the electoral movement strategies and the mobilizing impact of the media and collective action frames. The article reviews recent scholarship on the Women's March and the Resistance, then synthesizes the literature to examine EMILY's List and their electoral movement strategies leading up to the 2018 midterm elections. I conclude by suggesting avenues for future research that can bridge the relationship between movements and electoral politics and advance scholarly understanding of how, when, and why women run for office.

中文翻译：

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作为运动动员的候选人出现：对 2016 年后妇女选举参与的分析

政治学奖学金认为，女性在美国政治中的代表性不足源于女性候选人的持续短缺。妇女参选的可能性较小，因为她们经常认为个人和结构性障碍会对她们的选举利益产生负面影响。这些障碍仍然完好无损，但自 2016 年大选以来，数千名女性通过参加候选人培训计划 (CTP) 表示有兴趣竞选公职。虽然竞选公职通常不被定义为激进活动，但本文认为，集体行动和运动动员理论，而不是那些关注候选人出现的心理方面的理论，更适合解释最近选举兴趣的增加。使用艾米莉' s List——一个起源于草根社会运动组织的精英政治实体——作为一个案例，本文结合社会学和政治学的学术研究，探讨女权主义活动家组织如何影响女性竞选公职的兴趣。在讨论选举运动策略以及媒体和集体行动框架的动员影响之前，我首先回顾了对女性候选人涌现和 CTP 的研究。这篇文章回顾了最近关于妇女游行和抵抗运动的奖学金，然后综合文献以检查 EMILY 的名单及其导致 2018 年中期选举的选举运动策略。