With five women running for the state House, including two facing each other, the Beaver County and northwest Allegheny County areas will have their own roles in an electoral season billed as “the year of the woman” in American politics.

“It’s wonderful,” said state Rep. Anita Kulik, D-45, Kennedy Township. “It’s time for it.”

There are 42 women serving in the 203-member House, 21 Republicans and 21 Democrats.

In Beaver County, Daugherty Township Democrat Amy Fazio, a business consultant, is challenging state Rep. Jim Marshall, R-14, Big Beaver, and Brighton Township Democrat Terri Mitko, an attorney, is running for the open 15th Legislative District seat against Beaver attorney Josh Kail.

Kulik is running for re-election for the first time after replacing former Democratic state Rep. Nick Kotik in 2016. She currently has no opposition on the ballot, although there has been speculation a third-party challenger could make a bid.

And, Ohio Township Democrat Michele Knoll, a former teacher who now works with families with infants with special needs, and Aleppo Township Republican Valerie Gaydos, a businesswoman, are running in the 44th Legislative District race to replace retiring Republican state Rep. Mark Mustio.

Kulik said the backlash to President Donald Trump is a factor in some women running for office, but it is not the only reason. “I don’t hear women saying, ’I’m doing this because of Trump,” she said. “I hear them saying they’re doing this because it’s their time and they want to be involved.”

Jennie Sweet-Cushman, an assistant professor of political science at Chatham University in Pittsburgh and assistant director of the Pennsylvania Center for Women and Politics, said Democratic women were energized by the Women’s March a day after Trump’s inauguration, as well as the Time’s Up and #MeToo movements shedding light on women’s experiences with sexual harassment and assault.

Sweet-Cushman said she saw that galvanizing energy in January 2017 during the center’s bipartisan training for women considering entering politics. While there are usually about 50 people there, that session had nearly 170 women attend, she said.

“It was a lot of women who didn’t know if they wanted to run, if they should run,” Sweet-Cushman said, “but they looked around after the election and wondered, ‘What can I do?’”

Read more at timesonline.com