WASHINGTON — Some of them always wanted to run, but were waiting on the right moment. Some were recruited. Others say they felt a sudden call to action.

One thing they have in common: They want more people like them — more women, that is — representing Texans in Congress.

Only three women serve in Texas’ 38-member delegation in Washington, despite women outnumbering men in the state’s population. But this year, more than 50 female candidates from Texas are hoping to change that statistic and are competing in more than two dozen House races, as well as to replace Sen. Ted Cruz.

The eye-popping figure is more than three times the number of Texas women who ran for Congress in 2016 and nearly eight times the number who ran in primaries during the 1992 “Year of the Woman,” state records show, though Texas had six fewer districts back then.

A handful of women are seen as serious contenders for the general election this fall, if not likely victors. They would become the first new women from Texas to win a general election to Congress since Fort Worth Rep. Kay Granger in 1996, apart from Shelley Sekula-Gibbs, who won a special election to briefly fill the remainder of former Rep. Tom DeLay's term a decade later.

“It’s a long time coming kind of movement,” said Cecilia McKay, president of League of Women Voters of Dallas, of the boom in female candidates. “Women are getting more confident. ... They are taking the plunge and saying: ‘I can make a difference.’”

They’re part of a national, largely Democratic-led surge in women running for political office this year. Including incumbent Reps. Eddie Bernice Johnson of Dallas and Sheila Jackson Lee of Houston, about 75 percent of the Texas women in congressional races are Democrats, records show. Many say they were spurred to action by President Donald Trump’s rhetoric and election.

A spate of retirements in the Texas delegation has also prompted a number of women in both parties to enter the ring.

Lillian Salerno, a Democrat who served in the U.S. Department of Agriculture under former President Barack Obama, described her decision to challenge Dallas Rep. Pete Sessions as a “slow churn.”

Salerno, who will face six men in the March 6 primary, said she was working on health care issues on behalf of small businesses last year when others encouraged her to run.

“It wasn’t that I thought a woman needed to be here,” she said, adding, “I thought maybe my skills could be useful in this time, in what seems like complete partisanship and divisiveness.”

Jenifer Sarver, one of three Republican women competing for outgoing San Antonio Rep. Lamar Smith’s seat in a crowded primary, said that for her, it was a matter of timing.

“I told people 15 years ago that when Lamar Smith retires, I will be running for his seat,” said Sarver, who worked for Texas’ first female senator — Republican Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison — in the early 2000s. “I’ve had a call, all my life, to run for office.”

Then there’s Jana Lynne Sanchez, one of three women and two female Democrats competing in retiring Republican Rep. Joe Barton’s district. Devastated by Trump's election, Sanchez asked a friend how she could have an impact.

Jana Lynne Sanchez, Democratic candidate for U.S. Congress in District 6.

She laughed when her friend advised: “Run for office.” After taking a closer look, the idea took hold.

"I didn't run because I'm a woman. I ran because I'm a patriot," said Sanchez, who has far outraised her competitors.

Keeping in context

There’s little doubt that Democratic women are behind the surge in candidacies, but political observers are cautioning to keep that rise in context.

More men are running, as well, said Kelly Dittmar, a scholar with the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University. An analysis by the center found that the number of Democratic men likely to run for Congress has more than doubled since early 2016.

Still, Democratic women are posting larger gains, Dittmar noted in a January report, with the number of potential female Democratic House candidates increasing by 146 percent, compared to 126 percent among Democratic men. GOP potential candidates also increased, she noted, 25 percent for men and 35 percent for women.

Including women from both parties, the proportion of women is still under 25 percent of all likely candidates for the U.S. House, Dittmar continued. “If we actually want to see significant jumps in women’s representation, that means they will also have to increase their numbers but also their portion of the candidate pool,” she said.

Jennifer Lawless, a professor of government with American University, added that regardless of gender, the factor that matters most is party affiliation. “Whether you have a D or an R [by your name] is the most important factor in the election, not the presence or absence of a Y chromosome in your DNA.”

Voter attitudes

Candidates from both sides of the aisle say they’ve encountered voters who say they are relieved to see more women on the ballot, particularly in light of high-profile sexual harassment scandals that have rocked Congress and private industry.

Salerno said she’s knocked on doors, prepared to rattle off her professional achievements, only for voters to say: “I’m done. I want to vote for a woman.”

Sarver said a GOP donor told her that he’d made a New Year’s resolution to only support female candidates, and that both men and women are interested in promoting diverse voices in Washington.

Still, “I would never want someone to vote for me because I’m a woman,” she said. “I would want them to say ‘You sound rational and pragmatic and sound like you will solve problems for us.’”

The issue is especially delicate in the Republican Party, Sarver said, because “the moment that you start to talk about race or gender, people think you’re playing identity politics.”

“To me, it’s one thing to say women are better at this. You should elect more women. That’s identity politics,” she continued. “But to say it would be beneficial for Congress to be more reflective of our population is not identity politics.”

Missy Shorey, head of the Dallas County Republican Party and executive director of Maggie’s List, a political action committee that promotes conservative women to office, noted that while gender matters far less to that electorate, her group recognizes that conservative women are underrepresented in Congress.

Out of 535 House and Senate lawmakers, just 106 are women. And of those, only 27 are Republican.

Maggie’s List is focused on finding women with more than a desire to run, Shorey said, but who have a realistic shot at winning in their district or state.

U.S. Representative District 5 candidate Bunni Pounds explains her platform at a Jan. 30 forum at the Dallas Athletic Club as Republican hopefuls Danny Campbell (right) and Charles Lingerfelt listen. (Ron Baselice / Staff Photographer)

In Texas, her group has endorsed Republican fundraiser Bunni Pounds, whose campaign declined an interview, and former San Marcos Mayor Susan Narvaiz. Both women are running for open seats vacated by retiring Reps. Jeb Hensarling of Dallas and San Antonio's Lamar Smith, respectively. The men are among a number of lawmakers bowing out as their chairmanships of powerful House committees expire after this term.

Shorey credits the GOP’s caucus rules that limit most chairmanships to three terms for creating opportunities for conservative female candidates. “It wasn’t Nancy Pelosi who did that, was it?” she said, referring to the House minority leader, who served as speaker from 2007 to 2011.

Democrats are no doubt driving the surge of women candidates nationally, but there are signs that interest from Republican women is increasing. NPR, using data from Rutgers University, reported that the number of GOP women running for the Senate, House and governorships is the highest it has been at this point in an election cycle since at least 2002.

Shorey said Republican women are “definitely interested in running” but are running differently than women on the left. “They are motivated by principle, by policy,” she said. “Not anger.”

She won’t get much argument on the anger issue from Donna Blevins, president-elect of the National Women's Political Caucus of Texas. The organization is bipartisan but promotes women who support abortion rights.

Blevins said that a “bunch of old feminists like me” were “appalled” by Trump’s election, and what she described as brutal treatment of Hillary Clinton.

“A lot of women are incensed,” she said, adding: “The fact that someone is a woman is not the only reason to vote for her, but I do think that the election, the 2016 election, woke up a lot of people. And a lot of them are women.”