“What motivated me to action more than anything was my daughter,” Fowler said.

The march, she said, made her realize that a majority of people felt like she did. She joined progressive groups and realized that her lawmaker, Del. Ronald Villanueva, was up for re-election. Fowler became a first-time candidate and won — after first beating a man in the Democratic primary who apologized for offensive social media posts about minorities and women but refused to drop out of the race.

She credits herself and the grass-roots progressive groups that helped her to win. After a newspaper endorsement, state Democratic Party leaders grew especially interested in her race and got involved.

Fowler said she never understood why the conventional wisdom was that the party would pick up four or five seats in the House. Democrats appear to have gained 15 seats in what was a 66-34 GOP majority House, with some races awaiting a recount.

Veronica Coleman, the Democratic challenger to Del. Glenn R. Davis Jr. in Virginia Beach’s District 84, could have been another. She nearly beat the incumbent — who ran for lieutenant governor in the GOP primary this year — with little attention on her race from the party in Richmond.