Its remarkable in 2018 that a state with 12.8 million people and 20 members of Congress could have zero women representing it.

Welcome to Pennsylvania, the state with the largest all-male delegation in the country.

That depressing statistic may change after this years midterm elections. A couple of male congressmen have resigned in the Keystone State after being caught up in sexual misconduct scandals, and four more are retiring at the end of this year. As elsewhere around the nation, a slew of impressive women have stepped up to compete for those open seats, motivated by the #MeToo movement and Donald Trump s presidency.

Democrats are especially excited about Chrissy Houlahan. In late January 2017, just after the first Womens March, EMILYs List sent a generic fundraising email to its 3 million members asking for a few dollars to help elect female Democratic candidates.

Most people just clicked the button in the email prompting them to donate. But Houlahan, a 49-year-old mother of two from Devon, Pennsylvania, hit reply and attached her resum, hoping someone in D.C. might notice her and help her figure out how to run for Congress.

Houlahan, an Air Force veteran, inner-city teacher and successful businesswoman, had spent the days after Trumps election comforting two distraught family members: her 25-year-old daughter, who identifies as queer, and her father, a 75-year-old Holocaust survivor who fled Poland as a child. Both were terrified of what the election meant for people like them.

My dad, this Holocaust survivor and naval officer a pretty tough guy was crying, worrying that people like him who came to this country with nothing to offer would still have the opportunities he was allowed, Houlahan told HuffPost. That was the beginning of thinking I needed to do something.