A Side-by-Side Comparison of the Democratic and Republican members of Congress.

I was curious about the stats of the Congressional Ds and Rs, so I compiled this list of demographic statistics of the House, with the Senate thrown in also, using gender, race/ethnicity, and religion as well as the 3 openly gay members of the House. I got as much information as I could from Google and Wikipedia.

House Democrats

Female (57) – Tammy Baldwin, Melissa Bean, Shelley Berkley, Corrine Brown, Lois Capps, Kathy Castor, Yvette Clarke, Kathy Dahlkemper, Susan Davis, Diana DeGette, Rosa DeLauro, Donna Edwards, Anna Eshoo, Marcia Fudge, Gabrielle Giffords, Debbie Halvorson, Jane Harman, Stephanie Herseth Sandlin, Mazie Hirono, Sheila Jackson-Lee, Eddie Bernice Johnson, Marcy Kaptur, Carolyn Kilpatrick, Mary Jo Kilroy, Ann Kirkpatrick, Suzanne Kosmas, Barbara Lee, Zoe Lofgren, Nita Lowey, Carolyn Maloney, Carolyn McCarthy, Betsy Markey, Doris Matsui, Betty McCollum, Gwen Moore, Grace Napolitano, Nancy Pelosi, Chellie Pingree, Laura Richardson, Lucille Roybal-Allard, Linda Sanchez, Loretta Sanchez, Jan Schakowsky, Allyson Schwartz, Carole Shea-Porter, Louise McIntosh Slaughter, Hilda Solis (until she is confirmed as Labor Secretary), Jackie Speier, Betty Sutton, Ellen Tauscher, Dina Titus, Niki Tsongas, Nydia Velazquez, Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, Maxine Waters, Diane Watson, Lynn Woolsey

Black (38) – Sanford Bishop, Corrine Brown, G.K. Butterfield, Andre Carson, Yvette Clarke, William Lacy Clay Jr., Emanuel Cleaver, Jim Clyburn, John Conyers, Elijah Cummings, Artur Davis, Danny Davis, Donna Edwards, Keith Ellison, Chaka Fattah, Marcia Fudge, Al Green, Alcee Hastings, Jesse Jackson Jr., Sheila Jackson-Lee, Eddie Bernice Johnson, Hank Johnson, Carolyn Kilpatrick, Barbara Lee, John Lewis, Kendrick Meek, Gregory Meeks, Gwen Moore, Don Payne, Charles Rangel, Laura Richardson, Bobby Rush, David Scott, Bennie Thompson, Ed Towns, Maxine Waters, Diane Watson, Mel Watt

Hispanic (21) – Joe Baca, Xavier Becerra, Henry Cuellar, Charlie Gonzalez, Raul Grijalva, Luis Gutierrez, Ruben Hinojosa, Ben Ray Luján, Grace Napolitano, Solomon Ortiz, Ed Pastor, Silvestre Reyes, Ciro Rodriguez, Lucille Roybal-Allard, John Salazar, Linda Sanchez, Loretta Sanchez, Jose Serrano, Albio Sires, Hilda Solis (until she is confirmed as Labor Secretary), Nydia Velazquez

Asian (4) – Mazie Hirono, Mike Honda, Doris Matsui, David Wu

Mixed (1) – Robert Scott (Black-Filipino)

Total Non-White (64)

Jewish (30) – Gary Ackerman, John Adler, Shelley Berkley, Howard Berman, Steve Cohen, Susan Davis, Eliot Engel, Barney Frank, Bob Filner, Gabrielle Giffords, Alan Grayson, Jane Harman, Paul Hodes, Steve Israel, Steve Kagen, Ron Klein, Sander Levin, Nita Lowey, Jared Polis, Jerrold Nadler, Steve Rothman, Jan Schakowsky, Adam Schiff, Allyson Schwartz, Brad Sherman, Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, Henry Waxman, Anthony Weiner, Robert Wexler, John Yarmuth

Muslim (2) – Andre Carson, Keith Ellison

Buddhist (2) – Mazie Hirono, Hank Johnson

Unitarian (1) – Walter Minnick

Atheist (1) – Pete Stark

Total Non-Christian (36)

Mormon (2): Leonard Boswell (RLDS), Jim Matheson (LDS)

Openly gay (3): Tammy Baldwin, Barney Frank, Jared Polis

House Republicans

Female (17) – Michele Bachmann, Judy Biggert, Marsha Blackburn, Mary Bono Mack, Ginny Brown-Waite, Shelley Capito, Jo Ann Emerson, Mary Fallin, Virginia Foxx, Kay Granger, Lynn Jenkins, Cynthia Lummis, Cathy McMorris Rodgers, Candice Miller, Sue Myrick, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Jean Schmidt

Hispanic (4) – Lincoln Diaz-Balart, Mario Diaz-Balart, Trent Franks, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen

Asian (2) – Steve Austria, Joseph Cao

Native American (1) – Tom Cole

Total Non-White (7)

Jewish (1) – Eric Cantor

Total Non-Christian (1)

Mormon (7): Rob Bishop, Jason Chaffetz, Jeff Flake, Dean Heller, Wally Herger, Buck McKeon, Mike Simpson

Christian Scientist (3): David Dreier, Bob Goodlatte, Lamar Smith

Senate Democrats

Female (13): Barbara Boxer, Maria Cantwell, Dianne Feinstein, Kirsten Gillibrand, Kay Hagan, Amy Klobuchar, Mary Landrieu, Blanche Lincoln, Claire McCaskill, Barbara Mikulski, Patty Murray, Jeanne Shaheen, Debbie Stabenow

Black (1): Roland Burris

Hispanic (1): Robert Menendez

Asian (1): Daniel Inouye

Mixed (1): Daniel Akaka (Chinese-Hawaiian)

Total Non-White (4)

Jewish (13): Michael Bennet, Barbara Boxer, Ben Cardin, Russ Feingold, Dianne Feinstein, Al Franken*, Herb Kohl, Frank Lautenberg, Carl Levin, Joe Lieberman, Bernie Sanders, Chuck Schumer, Ron Wyden

Unitarian Universalist (1): Kent Conrad

Total Non-Christian (14)

Mormon (2): Harry Reid, Tom Udall

Senate Republicans

Female (4): Susan Collins, Kay Bailey Hutchison, Lisa Murkowski, Olympia Snowe

Hispanic (1): Mel Martinez

Jewish (1): Arlen Specter

Mormon (3): Robert Bennett, Mike Crapo, Orrin Hatch

Now that I have the raw numbers, I can calculate the percentages of each party in each house that are non-white and non-Christian.

House Democrats

Percent female: 57/257 = 22.2%

Percent non-white: 64/257 = 24.9%

Percent non-Christian: 36/257 = 14.0%

House Republicans

Percent female: 17/178 = 9.6%

Percent non-white: 7/178 = 3.9%

Percent non-Christian: 1/178 = 0.6%

Senate Democrats

Percent female: 13/59 = 22.0%

Percent non-white: 4/59 = 6.8%

Percent non-Christian (if Franken is seated): 14/59 = 23.7%

Senate Republicans

Percent female: 4/41 = 9.8%

Percent non-white: 1/41 = 2.4%

Percent non-Christian: 1/41 = 2.4%

And now, combining the Senate and House:

Democrats

Percent female: 70/316 = 22.2%

Percent non-white: 68/316 = 21.5%

Percent non-Christian: 50/316 = 15.8%

Republicans

Percent female: 21/219 = 9.6%

Percent non-white: 8/219 = 3.7%

Percent non-Christian: 2/219 = 0.9%

Just for fun, let’s compare these numbers to the U.S. at large. I know these numbers are not perfect because some races/religions are much better represented than others as we discussed earlier.

U.S. as a whole ( https://www.cia.gov/library/pu… )

Percent female: 50.8%

Percent non-white: 35.1%

Percent non-Christian: 21.5%

Can you guess which party better represents America?

76 thoughts on “A Side-by-Side Comparison of the Democratic and Republican members of Congress.”

  1. Nice job.

    Hank Johnson is black.

    Very surprisingly, Tom Cole identifies himself as American Indian.

    David Dreier was outed several campaigns ago.  He may not acknowledge it but I’d consider him openly gay.

    Two religions deserve some mention.  There are 13 Mormons (10 R, 3 D) and 3 Christian Scientists (3 R).  I’d personally consider them less “Christian” than the Unitarians (who also include Kent Conrad).

    Trent Franks is a member of the Hispanic Caucus but he identifies himself as white.  

    Devin Nunes who strongly identifies as “hispanic” at least for these sort of things is Portuguese.  

  2. You list Hispanics as non-white when listing individual members.  But, unless I’m seriously mistaken, Hispanics are not included among non-whites in the figure you cite for the USA as a whole; otherwise that number would be much higher.

    Great job and interesting post.

  3. but openly gay means you have come out as being gay. David Dreier is still in the closet although it is an open secret. So I wouldn’t list him there unless you are going to list a lot of others.

  4. Only 1 Congressman admits to being atheist, but I’d bet at least 25% of Congress are atheists. Keep in mind many of them come from an academic background.

  5. He’s a member of the Community of Christ aka the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, ie. The Mormons who thought Brigham Young was a nutjob and stayed in Missouri.

  6. I wasn’t aware that Bobby Scott of Virginia was also part Filipino.

    btw, Senator Akaka is Chinese-Hawaiian, so can qualify for the mixed category, if one wants to track that.  Also in the House, CBC member G. K. Butterfield obviously has a good amount of white ancestry, but so do many of the CBC members, including our president. 😉

  7. I’m having a hard time swallowing that Matheson is an FLDS member (the same branch that was caught in Texas with child brides and polygamous marriages).  I suspect he’s just regular old LDS, just like Harry Reid.  Yep, per wikipedia, just an ordinary Mormon.

  8. Good stuff.

    Just one thing about the new Senator from Colorado. I assume he’s listed as Jewish since one of his parents is Jewish. However, this is a list by religious affiliation, not ethnicity. Senator Bennet says he was raised with both Christian and Jewish heritages yet his congressional profile lists his religion as “unspecified”. I’m thinking he should be in the same category as Tammy Baldwin and Bill Foster.  

  9. Do you think it’s worth noting, for example, which country Hispanic/Asian members are from (or descended from) or which branch of Judaism the Jewish members follow?

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