Twenty-five years ago this month, a young lawyer and federal worker named Anita Hill publicly accused then-Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas of sexual harassment. Hill’s allegations during Thomas’s televised confirmation hearings transfixed the nation, not only because they were graphic and controversial, but also because the Senate Judiciary Committee’s all-white, all-male composition hit female viewers like a lightning bolt.

Back then, the Democratic women’s PAC EMILY’s List was a fledgling shop with about 1,200 members and a 1990 campaign budget of just $3 million, money the group had both donated to and raised on behalf of women candidates. By the time Election Day 1992 rolled around, membership had exploded to 24,000, candidate fundraising had hit $10 million, and EMILY’s List—along with several other women’s organizations suddenly flush with cash and volunteers—helped elect five new women to the Senate and 24 to the House.

This year, EMILY’s List has already blown past its 2014 spending record of $60 million, and group founder Ellen Malcolm sees another Anita Hill moment in the making. The October 8 release of the now-infamous video that captures Donald Trump bragging about his crass assaults on women has sent female donors and volunteers flocking once again to groups such as EMILY’s List and Planned Parenthood. Organizers say women—and many men—are helping them ramp up their get-out-the-vote activities at a key campaign juncture. The American Prospect