Women’s March 2018: Ohio Event Is Jan. 20

CLEVELAND, OH — The founders of a movement that last year brought a throng of women to the streets of Washington, D.C., and Cleveland, are planning a repeat demonstration this year. The 2018 Women’s March is framed around a “national voter registration tour” ahead of the 2018 midterm elections.

In Cleveland the 2018 Women’s March will be held Jan. 20. From 10:30 a.m. to 1 p.m., marchers will circle Cleveland Public Square. From 11 a.m. to noon, speakers will address the crowd. After 12 p.m., the crowd will begin its march to City Hall and then back to Public Square.

Last year's event drew approximately 15,000 people. This year's event currently has about 2,000 confirmed attendees on Facebook and another 6,000 interested people.

After the event, the Women's March group will host a Power to the Polls session in Lakewood from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. During that event, attendees will learn how to support female candidates for office, get an update on anti-gerrymandering cases and more.

The marches come at a watershed moment for women, who are seeking public office in record numbers in the 2018 midterm elections. Women are empowered both by the #MeToo movement, which brought a trove of stories from women who said they have faced sexual assault or harassment, and outrage against President Trump, who famously said in a 2005 Access Hollywood tape leaked during the 2016 campaign that he had groped women’s genitals — prompting the pink “pussy” hats demonstrators wore last year.

This year's flagship march will actually be held in Sin City. Organizers said they chose Las Vegas for the main “Power to the Polls” march because it is a microcosm for issues important to women, from gun violence to allegations of sexual assault against male politicians.

Las Vegas was the site of the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history last year, and Democratic Congressman Ruben Kihuen was accused by at least two women of groping them without permission. Kihuen is one of the latest of scores of powerful men implicated in a far-reaching scandal that has rocked politics and the entertainment and news industries.

Nevada also is a swing state that could flip from red to blue in the November midterm elections, making it a prime place to hold the main march, organizers said. Three Democrats and two Republicans are challenging U.S. Sen. Dean Heller, a Republican, in the June 2018 election. The race is considered a toss-up, and is one of several closely watched midterm election contests that could shift the balance in the Senate.

The organizers of the march were encouraged by Democrat Doug Jones’ upset win over Republican Roy Moore last month in the deep red state of Alabama, which hasn’t sent a Democrat to the U.S. Senate since 1992. Moore was leading the special Senate race to replace Attorney General Jeff Sessions until multiple women accused him of sexual misconduct. The women said they were teenagers and Moore was in his 30s when the alleged impropriety took place. Moore has denied the allegations.

Women, especially Democrats, are finding a path to victory in states where their election seemed improbable. For example, Virginia voters in November elected Danica Roem, the first openly transgender woman ever to be elected to a state legislature. She was one of 11 progressive women who unseated Republican men in the state’s House of Delegates.

The Women’s Marches will also bring attention to “systemic voter suppression laws that inhibit so many communities from voting,” Linda Sarsour, a co-organizer, said in a statement.

Learn more about the 2018 Women’s March here.

Photo: Protesters walk during the Women's March on Washington, with the U.S. Capitol in the background, on Jan. 21, 2017 in Washington, D.C., a day after President Donald Trump was sworn in as the nation’s 45th president. Similar marches are planned for 2018. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images News/Getty Images)