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Home / News & Insights / Insights & Opinions

5 things you didn’t know about the new Congress

December 31, 2020

We went beyond the spin and ran the numbers on the “most diverse Congress” in history.

1. It’s not very new.

  • 87% of House winners and 79% of Senate winners were incumbents; Out of Congress’ 535 members, only 65 are new
  • Only 8% of House races did not have an incumbent running
  • Only 16 out of 435 House seats (4%) changed party 

2. The advantages of incumbency prevent change, locking in the race and gender status quo.

61% of House incumbent candidates were white men

73% of Senate incumbent candidates were white men

3. The most diverse Congress ever is still overwhelmingly white and male.

White men are 30% of the US population

White men are 58% of the 117th House of Representatives

White men are 67% of Senators

4. Headlines about a Republican Party diversity “breakthrough” distract from a grim reality.

Reflective representation in the 117th Congress

  • The GOP flipped 12 House seats with women and people of color candidates, but 78% of Republican House candidates were men, and 81% were white.
  • Republicans in the 117th House are 93% white, 86% male, and 82% white & male.
  • Republicans in the Senate are 94% white, 82% male, and 76% white and male.
  • Democratic House members almost exactly mirror the demographics of the country: 61% white (34% white men, 28% white women) and 38% people of color (20% men of color, 18% women of color).
  • Senate Democrats are less reflective: 59% white men, 26% white women, 8% women of color, and 6% men of color.

5. The glass ceiling isn’t about to shatter. 

  • From 2016 to 2018, women increased by 24% in the House and 14% in the Senate, a massive acceleration over prior cycles.  At that pace of change, in theory, half the members of Congress could have been women in just 10 years.
  • But from 2018 to 2020, women increased by just 13% in the House and 9% in the Senate, putting the brakes on progress. 
Download the Fact Sheet

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