First Donald Trump inspired Katie Muth to tell her husband about her rape, then he galvanized her into running for office.

Muth had been married for about five years, but never told her husband about the man she says raped her after the rehearsal dinner of a wedding years before they met.

Men in positions of power are dropping the ball, according to former president Barack Obama, who thinks perhaps a way to fix that is to get more women at the table.

Democrats, in particular, have high hopes for the impact women could make in the fall's midterm elections. But the former president spoke about the importance of having more women in leadership positions globally, particularly in Africa.

After years of being told to put on a suit and recite their résumé, women running for office are now revealing themselves in more complex ways.

The guys at the union hall have just swapped out the first keg when Abby Finkenauer, Democratic candidate for Congress, arrives and immediately reveals the kind of vulnerability that campaign consultants have long told women to avoid.

At a McAlister's Deli, tucked in one of the miles of strip malls that line Manchester Road among the shoulder-to-shoulder suburbs of west St. Louis County, Helen McCauley and her daughter Sara didn't hesitate when asked recently about the coming political season.

"I don't always vote the midterm elections, but this time I definitely will," said Helen, whose politics lean left, with a focus on women's issues.

Statewide, females make up 38 percent of candidates this year, compared to 32 percent in the prior election cycle.

More women in Hawaii are running for office in 2018 than in the last election cycle two years ago, following a nationwide trend.

In Hawaii, 125 women are candidates for local, state and federal offices this year, compared to 93 candidates on the 2016 primary ballot, according to the state Office of Elections.

The 2018 midterm elections are shaping up to be a watershed year for women and politics. Not only are a record number of women running for political office in 2018, but many of them are running campaigns that tout the underrepresentation of women in an effort to galvanize the women’s vote. MJ Hegar, an Air Force veteran and young mother running for Congress in Texas as a Democrat, said that “women are sick of” male elected leaders promising to protect women’s rights.

A millennial candidate has shaken up the US Democratic Party by defeating the incumbent congressman for his seat.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, 28, defeated political veteran Joe Crowley, 56, on Tuesday night in their party's congressional primary in New York City.

Mr Crowley, a 10-term Democrat, had been tipped as a future party leader or even Speaker of the House.

Democratic state Comptroller Susana Mendoza says the party’s panel on sexual harassment issues will go beyond that subject to look at ways to recruit more women to run for public office.

Mendoza serves on the panel dealing with “anti-harassment and equal access” that House Speaker Michael Madigan appointed months ago amid harassment and bullying complaints in the party that he chairs.