demographic shift in congress - younger, less white & more female

i was curious about the demographic breakdown of the new congress (116th) and did some research this morning. pulled a few statistics that i thought were interesting. in terms of ethnicity, gender and age our house of representatives is becoming more "representative" of the population. its definitely happening more on the democrat side, but this is something people of all political stripes should be encouraged by. either way, i thought it was cool to step back and just look at raw numbers. this should also be a wake-up call for the GOP...while the country is getting younger, more ethnically diverse and more accepting of women in leadership roles, trumpism is turning them into the party of old white dudes.

***numbers were different depending on when article was written. went with what I found to be most recent, but since some races are still shaking out im sure the numbers have changed.

88 new house members will be sworn in. 101 women were elected in the mid-terms. next year the house of reps (116th) will be 23% female...an all-time high. 115th congress had 89 women in house. of 31 new republicans, only one is a woman…the other 30 are white dudes. of 40 new dems, 22 are women and 8 are african american. dems went from 64 women to 91 and republicans went down from 25 to 19.

25 candidates elected are 40 or younger. dems elected 43 new representatives who are 53 or younger (gen x and millennial). republicans elected 20.

average age of new dems dropped 7.7 years from previous congress - 53 to 46.

1981
avg american age - 30
avg representative age - 49
avg senator age - 53

2017
avg american age - 38
avg representative age - 58
avg senator age - 62

one thing that stands out is how old the dem leadership is. top three house dems are all almost 80. john conyers will be 90 next year. diane feinstein will be 86 next year. There are 27 house dems who are at least 73 and only 11 republicans.

115th congress – 46 african americans in house and 3 in senate. 34 hispanics in house and 3 in senate. It was 80% white, 80% male and 92% Christian. 83 women in house and 21 in senate.

116th congress will have 55 african americans in congress. two muslim women for first time and two native american women. 36 hispanics in house and 4 in senate.

closer to home, texas elected the first latina women to congress – “While Latinos make up nearly 40 percent of the state's population, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, until now no Latino woman had been elected to Congress from Texas.”

I also like that there are a record number of combat veterans in the house and senate – 92.

https://www.newsweek.com/proportion...ican-house-caucus-actually-increasing-1216519

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/oct/06/congress-senate-house-age-problem

https://www.usnews.com/news/the-rep...ies-deliver-for-democrats-in-midterm-election

 

really cool chart here where you can see age distribution in congress among Rs and Ds. interesting that dems are getting older and younger at the same time.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/grap...ats-pelosi-opposition/?utm_term=.0688d6977def

 

delete

must...avoid...russian...trolls!

 

agree, and im sure some of thats happening. its only natural that young people are going to be more inclined to vote for someone closer in age to them. or women more inclined to vote for other women (especially in the age of trump!). but i think overall it is a good thing to have the peoples house more accurately represent the people. still a long way to go...the 116th will only be 23% women, and african americans, hispanics, asians, ect are severely underrepresented, but i for one think its a positive step.

also, there are plenty of people who only support trump and republicans b/c they are christian...to me, thats just as bad, if not worse than voting for someone b/c you share their age, gender or race.

the thing i like the most is the youth movement. its happening on both sides of the aisle. weird to see people a full decade or more younger than me getting elected to congress! imo, the quicker the baby boomers get the f*** out of the way, the quicker we can right the ship.

 

either show me a post where i did that or you get the **** out of here comrade.

also, in case you were not aware, you are the only one coming off as crying like a b**** in this thread.

 

sure. for example, its bad when people wear their christianity on their sleeves in order to win political office and then advocate for policies that go against the teachings of jesus.