In the coming weeks, the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies will launch a hiring campaign calling on Congress to prioritize racial diversity in its top staffing positions. This campaign will feature a microsite featuring interactive tracking tools, reports, an explainer video, coalition letters, and a list of ways concerned citizens and members of Congress can get involved. The microsite will allow users to learn how each new and returning member of Congress is faring when it comes to hiring diverse top staff (i.e., chiefs of staff, legislative directors, and communications directors) in their Washington, DC office. This campaign is vital because the perspectives and decisions of top congressional staff shape the lives of everyday Americans — especially those from communities of color.
In November 2022, the Joint Center launched a similar hiring campaign, and this blog post provides a summary of those results. These results demonstrate that while members of Congress have increased the diversity of their top staff hires since the 117th Congress, they must do more for top congressional staff diversity to reflect the diversity in the United States. Members of Congress in the 119th Congress will have an opportunity to change these statistics over the next few months as turnover increases and they hire top staff and pathway staff for their offices. The Joint Center will be tracking and sharing the hiring patterns for all top staff in congressional offices in our forthcoming 119th Congress tracker.
As of June 30, 2023, our 118th Congress campaign found that the top staff in Congress was comprised of 18.3 percent people of color, with 5.4 percent being African American. In the House of Representatives, 19.4 percent of top staff were people of color and 6.2 percent were African American. In the U.S. Senate, top staff was comprised of 13.5 percent people of color with 2.1 percent identifying as African American. People of color account for 40.0 percent of the U.S. population, and African Americans account for 12.4 percent of the population.
Returning House Members
As of June 30, 2023, returning House members employed a top staff comprised of 18.4 percent people of color, which lagged the national population (40.0 percent people of color), but was slightly higher than the top staff of the entire House in 2022 (18.0 percent people of color).
House Democrats: People of color accounted for 29.5 percent of top staff employed by returning House Democrats of the 118th Congress as of June 30, 2023. By comparison, people of color accounted for 26.3 percent of top staff employed by returning House Democrats of the 117th Congress in October 2022.
House Republicans: People of color accounted for 7.6 percent of top staff employed by returning House Republicans of the 118th Congress as of June 30, 2023. By comparison, people of color accounted for 5.4 percent of top staff employed by returning House Republicans of the 117th Congress in October 2022.
Returning Senators
As of June 30, 2023, 14 percent of top staff employed by returning senators were people of color, which lagged behind the national population (40.0 percent people of color), but was higher than Senate top staff diversity in 2020 (11.0 percent people of color).
Senate Democrats: People of color account for 21.3 percent of top staff employed by returning Senate Democrats of the 118th Congress as of June 30, 2023. By comparison, people of color accounted for 19.0 percent of top staff employed by returning Senate Democrats of the 116th Congress in August 2020.
Senate Republicans: People of color account for 5.7 percent of top staff employed by returning Senate Republicans of the 118th Congress as of June 30, 2023. By comparison, people of color accounted for 4.0 percent of staff employed by returning Senate Republicans of the 116th Congress in August 2020.
Newly-Elected House Members
As of June 2023, 24.2 percent of top staff employed by new House members were people of color, which lagged the national population (40.0 percent people of color). However, the percentage of diverse top staff employed by new House members was higher than the top staff of newly-elected House members two years ago (23.1 percent people of color).
House Democrats: People of color account for 41.6 percent of top staff employed by newly-elected House Democrats. By comparison, people of color accounted for 55.6 percent of top staff employed by freshman House Democrats two years ago.
House Republicans: People of color account for 8.8 percent of top staff employed by newly-elected House Republicans. By comparison, people of color accounted for 12.4 percent of staff employed by freshman House Republicans two years ago.
Newly-Elected Senators
As of June 2023, 8.3 percent of top staff employed by new senators were people of color, which was lower than the entire U.S. Senate in 2020 (11.0 percent), and top staff employed by newly-elected senators two years ago (36.7 percent).
Diversity Must Be a Priority in the 119th Congress
As the 119th Congress approaches, new and returning members can improve the percentage of diverse top staff. Our upcoming campaign will include a new website tracking the diversity trends of the top staff of every member of the 119th Congress and offer clear directives for how to solve the lack of representation, and an explainer video on the need for diversity on the Hill.