(From the diaries – promoted by DavidNYC)
In several diaries or stories lately there have been comments where people have wondered whether Congressperson X is the only person of Y race to represent a district that is majority-Z. I went through the list and found every one I can think of, so hopefully this diary can be the ultimate argument-settler. Please feel free to chime in in the comments if you think someone is missing.
I’m using 2005 census estimates. Interestingly, a number of districts have crossed a threshold since the 2000 census: a number of districts, for instance, have crossed from a white plurality to a Hispanic plurality in those years (CA-17, CA-21, CA-23, CA-27), while CA-13 crossed from white plurality to an Asian plurality. TX-09, TX-18, and TX-30 crossed from an African-American plurality to a Hispanic plurality (although the Houston districts may have switched back, thanks to the New Orleans diaspora). While most districts are becoming less white, one district actually crossed the other way: HI-02 crossed from an Asian plurality to a white plurality.
Districts with white majority not represented by white
| Rep. | Rep’s race | District | % white | % Af.-Am. | % Asian | % Hispanic |
| Wu | Asian | OR-01 | 77.8 | 1.2 | 6.1 | 11.8 |
| Cole | Native Am. | OK-04 | 76.9 | 6.3 | 1.9 | 5.5 |
| Salazar | Hispanic | CO-03 | 73.8 | 0.4 | 0.7 | 22.4 |
| Franks | Hispanic* | AZ-02 | 73.5 | 2.9 | 2.2 | 17.5 |
| Ellison | Af.-Am. | MN-05 | 67.8 | 13.3 | 5.7 | 8.4 |
| Cleaver | Af.-Am. | MO-05 | 65.2 | 23.7 | 1.4 | 7.0 |
| Carson | Af.-Am. | IN-07 | 58.0 | 31.0 | 1.4 | 6.8 |
| Eshoo | Asian* | CA-14 | 55.9 | 2.4 | 19.6 | 18.0 |
(Despite the Anglo name, Trent Franks identifies as Mexican-American and is a member of the Congressional Hispanic Conference, the Republican equivalent to the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. Anna Eshoo is of Assyrian descent; I don’t know if she would describe herself as white or Asian.)
Districts with white plurality not represented by white
| Rep. | Rep’s race | District | % white | % Af.-Am. | % Asian | % Hispanic |
| Bishop | Af.-Am. | GA-02* | 47.8 | 47.6 | 0.6 | 2.9 |
| Moore | Af.-Am. | WI-04 | 44.1 | 35.6 | 3.3 | 14.3 |
| Honda | Asian | CA-15 | 41.2 | 2.1 | 33.6 | 19.9 |
| Matsui | Asian | CA-05 | 39.6 | 14.7 | 15.9 | 24.7 |
| Lee | Af.-Am. | CA-09 | 36.0 | 22.5 | 15.7 | 21.4 |
| Hirono | Asian | HI-02 | 28.7 | 1.5 | 26.5 | 10.8 |
(The Census Bureau, for some reason, does not have estimated populations for 2005 for the 110th congress (only for the 109th congress, which doesn’t reflect Georgia’s mid-decade redistricting), so the numbers for GA-02 are based on the actual 2000 census count. As you can see, it may have crossed into an African-American plurality in the last few years.)
Districts with African-American majority not represented by African-American
| Rep. | Rep’s race | District | % white | % Af.-Am. | % Asian | % Hispanic |
| Cohen | White | TN-09 | 29.6 | 63.1 | 1.7 | 4.3 |
Districts with African-American plurality not represented by African-American
| Rep. | Rep’s race | District | % white | % Af.-Am. | % Asian | % Hispanic |
| Brady | White | PA-01 | 26.5 | 49.6 | 4.8 | 17.1 |
Districts with Asian majority not represented by Asian
| Rep. | Rep’s race | District | % white | % Af.-Am. | % Asian | % Hispanic |
| Abercrombie | White | HI-01 | 17.0 | 2.4 | 56.5 | 5.0 |
Districts with Asian plurality not represented by Asian
| Rep. | Rep’s race | District | % white | % Af.-Am. | % Asian | % Hispanic |
| Stark | White | CA-13 | 30.4 | 7.1 | 35.0 | 22.9 |
Districts with Hispanic majority not represented by Hispanic
| Rep. | Rep’s race | District | % white | % Af.-Am. | % Asian | % Hispanic |
| Gene Green | White | TX-29 | 17.1 | 10.1 | 1.2 | 70.8 |
| Filner | White | CA-51 | 18.4 | 6.3 | 13.1 | 59.5 |
| Berman | White | CA-28 | 30.7 | 3.1 | 6.0 | 58.4 |
| Waters | Af.-Am. | CA-35 | 9.7 | 29.3 | 5.7 | 53.5 |
Districts with Hispanic plurality not represented by Hispanic
| Rep. | Rep’s race | District | % white | % Af.-Am. | % Asian | % Hispanic |
| Pearce | White | NM-02 | 42.0 | 1.5 | 0.6 | 49.3 |
| Nunes | White* | CA-21 | 40.3 | 2.3 | 6.3 | 48.6 |
| Rangel | Af.-Am. | NY-15 | 19.0 | 27.3 | 3.0 | 47.7 |
| Richardson | Af.-Am. | CA-37 | 14.2 | 22.2 | 12.9 | 47.6 |
| Farr | White | CA-17 | 43.0 | 1.8 | 5.4 | 46.9 |
| Capps | White | CA-23 | 44.7 | 1.6 | 5.2 | 46.3 |
| Crowley | White | NY-07 | 24.2 | 15.6 | 15.9 | 42.3 |
| Jackson Lee | Af.-Am. | TX-18 | 17.2 | 37.0 | 3.2 | 41.6 |
| Sherman | White | CA-27 | 40.2 | 5.1 | 12.0 | 40.6 |
| Al Green | Af.-Am. | TX-09 | 14.1 | 34.3 | 10.1 | 40.5 |
| E.B. Johnson | Af.-Am. | TX-30 | 17.9 | 39.7 | 1.0 | 40.1 |
| Watson | Af.-Am. | CA-33 | 20.6 | 27.1 | 12.6 | 37.5 |
| Lofgren | White | CA-16 | 29.0 | 2.8 | 27.8 | 37.2 |
(Devin Nunes is a member of the Congressional Hispanic Conference, but identifies as Portuguese-American, which at least to me does not imply either “Hispanic” (from a Spanish-speaking background) or “Latino” (from a Latin American background).)
In his pic he looks white. His bio also says he is Baptist which would be unusual for a Hispanic.
I’d imagine there are a couple of reasons for this.
1. An unusually large of Hispanics do not yet have full legal status to vote.
2. The average age of Hispanics is lower than other demographics due to more children and higher birthrates.
I have to believe that as this large number of Hispanic children become old enough to vote the number of Hispanic representatives in congress will increase.
was plurality hispanic.
Learn something new every day!
Tom Cole, who is a member of the Chickasaw Nation, and the only Native American currently in Congress. We have to be fair here and include the Republicans — it’s not like they have very many non-white members 🙂
I don’t know anything about Devin Nunes, although I’ll assume his background is Portugese proper rather than from Brazil or one of the former colonies. In that case he wouldn’t speak Spanish, but might easily identify as Hispanic (and indeed Latino).
Portugese isn’t that closely related to Spanish, nor is it mutually intelligible, but the relationship is closer than that between, say, French and Spanish. There are also Iberian languages that are much closer to Portugese than to Spanish. And Spanish isn’t monolithic – Hispanics come from many countries and their dialects will differ.
On a more basic level, Portugal is part of the Iberian peninsula, which the Romans called Hispania, from which the word Hispanic comes.
My broader point is this: Hispanic isn’t an end point in establishing somebody’s ethnicity. Much like white, it’s only the first step.
Also, I seriously doubt somebody of Assyrian origin would self-designate as Asian, since in America that tends to mean East Asian. I’d say Arab, except that such a classification would piss off pretty much any Assyrian nationalist. Eshoo should probably be marked down as either white or as ‘other’.
I’d always thought Hispanic.
I’m not sure how far you’re taking your list. There are a half dozen or so Arab American politicians serving in Congress.
Here in W.Va. Nick Rahall (WV-03) is of Lebanese descent. He’s the chairman of the Arab American Congressional Caucus.
Of the 35 representatives in this diary (by my count), how many are Democrats? I’ll bet it’s a vast majority, and I think that says something.
only add up to be 68% of the total population. I’m assuming that your not including Pacific Islander which is a demographic which is not neccessarily Asian, in fact many would be offended to lumped into one big group. I know that district can’t be plurality white, Hawaii is 70% minority, the Pacific Islanders probably outnumber. The other district, Abercrombies, also only presents about 78% of the population.