On January 3, 2019, when the 116th Congress was sworn in, the nation witnessed the most diverse group of congressmen and congresswomen to date. The new Congress broke barriers in the representation of women, people of color, LGBTQ+, and millennials. Overall, the new members include 40 women, 60 men, 25 people of color, 64 Democrats, and 37 Republicans. In addition to Congress as a whole, there are a few individual congresswomen who made historic firsts.
The first woman ever elected senator from Tennessee is conservative Republican Marsha Blackburn, who, according to her campaign, will “fight to bring significant tax relief to hard-working Tennesseans, fight to cut wasteful spending, fight for our veterans to keep our promises to those who have defended our freedoms, and fight to secure our borders and ensure existing immigration laws are followed.” Despite Marsha Blackburn making history, according to the Tennessean, “Tennessee’s congressional delegation ranks among the worst in the country for diversity among its top staff members.”
Sharice Davids of Kansas and Debra Haaland of New Mexico, both Democrats, are the first two Native American women elected to Congress. Davids is also the first openly LGBTQ representative from Kansas. In a Fox News interview, Davids explained her goal of “lowering the costs of receiving care and paying for medicine” and her support for voting rights and campaign reform. Haaland’s ambitions include addressing climate change, income inequality, and Medicare’s availability.
Veronica Escobar and Sylvia Garcia are the first two Latina Americans elected to Congress from Texas, a state that is now 40% Latino. Escobar, from El Paso, is working “hard to defeat efforts to implement border tariffs, protect [our] DREAMERs, expanding access to affordable healthcare, improving veterans’ services, and protecting seniors, the disabled, and working families” according to her campaign. Raised in Palito Blanco, Garcia’s website highlights her three main priorities: “veterans, immigrant rights, and women’s healthcare.” Both Escobar and Garcia are Democrats.
At age 29, New Yorker Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is the youngest woman ever elected to Congress. Ocasio-Cortez, a democratic socialist, defeated 10-term congressman and ranking Democrat Joe Crowley. Her campaign’s platform includes “a single-payer, Medicare-for-all system, inclusive housing policies, a peace economy, a federal jobs guarantee, gun control, assault weapons ban, and criminal justice reform.”
Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib, both Democrats, are the first two Muslim American women elected to Congress. Omar, a Somali-American, is also the first member of Congress to wear a headscarf and the first woman of color elected to Congress from Minnesota. Her vision, from her campaign website, consists of welcoming immigrants into the US and providing them “with paths to citizenship, increasing access to public education, healthcare coverage for all, environmental justice, a living wage and access to benefits, and clean, fair elections.” Rashida Tlaib, a Palestinian-American from Michigan, has a focus on economic justice, promoting “homeownership, ending corporate welfare, equal pay for equal work, and preventing cuts to Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid” according to her website.
Representatives Ayanna Pressley (D-MA) and Jahana Hayes (D-CT) are the first black women elected to Congress from their states. Pressley works to fulfill what she calls an equity agenda, which addresses “health care and public health, violence and trauma, immigration, and housing,” as stated on her web page. The 2016 National Teacher of the Year, Hayes’ online campaign platform works to solve issues surrounding “education, gun violence, healthcare, and social justice.”
Lastly, Democrat Kyrsten Sinema is the first woman elected senator from Arizona, and first openly bisexual person elected to the Senate. Her campaign motto is “Getting things done for everyday Arizonans.” Her goals, according to her website, include “affordable health care for all Arizonans, keeping Arizona families safe, growing Arizona’s economy, immigration reform, and standing up for women and families.”
All these historic firsts mark a significant change in the 116th Congress. 21% of the congressmen and women are people of color. Specifically, there are 54 African Americans, 42 Latin Americans, 15 Asians/Pacific Islanders, and 4 Native Americans, according to Business Insider. There is also a record number of 125 women.
Even though the new Congress is more diverse than in the past, many demographics are still underrepresented in comparison to the United States’ population as a whole. In fact, people of every racial demographic except white are underrepresented, and there are still about three times as many men as women in Congress.
There are also large differences in diversity between the Democrats and Republicans. Compared to Republicans, a higher percentage of Democrats in Congress are women or people of color.
In her victory speech, Representative Pressley (D-MA) praised this diversity, and said, “It’s not just good enough to see the Democrats back in power but it matters who those Democrats are.”
With new and more diverse members in Congress and a Democrat majority in the house, legislation from Capitol Hill is likely to change.
According to Vox, political scientist Michele Swers’ research studies show that “women in Congress pass, on average, twice as many bills as their male colleagues.” In a Kansas City Star Interview, Davids (D-KS) explained, “as a White House Fellow, I saw first-hand the disconnect that exists when decision makers have no connection to the communities they’re impacting. I saw that one new voice can change the entire conversation.” Additionally, for Omar (D-MN), diversity opens “a unique lens into creating policy that is more impactful.”
