SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE: The Trump effect: Women aren’t just marching, they’re running

The timing seemed politically perfect.

Last fall, Buffy Wicks, a self-described career “organizer, activist and agitator” who was running Hillary Clinton’s campaign in California, was scheduled to give birth to her first child — a girl — on election day, when she expected America to elect its first female president.

Wicks delivered on her part of the deal, although a couple of weeks late. That gave her extra time for deep soul-searching after Clinton’s loss. Sure, the Oakland resident had a fulfilling job waiting for her after the campaign, but she found Donald Trump’s election so shocking that she wanted more.

“I needed to do something,” Wicks said. “I need to pour my heart and soul into something.”

It is something that many Democratic women have been saying for months. In the 2016 election cycle, about 900 women contacted Emily’s List, which for 30 years has been training and raising money for female Democratic candidates who favor abortion rights, to express an interest in running for office. Since Trump’s inauguration, 13,000 have contacted the group.

Now some — like Wicks, 39 — are taking that initial interest a step further.