When they take their oaths of office on Tuesday, members of the 118th Congress will break several records set by the outgoing Congress. It has a record number of women in it: 149. This is just two more women than the 117th Congress, which set the previous record. Overall, there will be a record number of women of color in the office this year, with 58. There will also be a record number of Latinas and Black women in the House alone.
When they take their oaths of office on Tuesday, members of the 118th Congress will break several records set by the outgoing Congress.
It has a record number of women in it: 149. This is just two more women than the 117th Congress, which set the previous record. Overall, there will be a record number of women of color in the office this year, with 58. There will also be a record number of Latinas and Black women in the House alone.
There is also the first lawmaker from Generation Z and the woman who has been in Congress the longest. Some newcomers, Republicans and Democrats made history in their states. This brought a diverse group to Washington, which was already politically divided. Here’s a look at the new and returning lawmakers making history in each chamber of Congress this year.
Katie Britt, a Republican from Alabama, is the first woman to be elected to the U.S. Senate. She won a seat left open when her former boss, GOP Sen. Richard Shelby, who had held the seat for almost 40 years, left it. Both of Alabama’s previous female senators were picked to fill empty seats.
Alex Padilla, a Democrat, will be the first Latino senator from California. He won both a special election to fill the rest of Vice President Kamala Harris’ term and a full six-year term. Padilla, whose parents came to the U.S. from Mexico, was put in Harris’s old seat by California Gov. Gavin Newsom. Harris gave up that seat when she became vice president.
Oklahoma: Republican Markwayne Mullin won the special election to replace GOP Sen. Jim Inhofe, who is leaving office. He will be the first Native American senator from Oklahoma in almost 100 years. In the last Congress, Mullin, a member of the Cherokee Nation, was the representative for the state’s 2nd Congressional District. Robert Owen was a Democrat and a member of the Cherokee Nation. From 1907 to 1925, he was the senator for Oklahoma.
House of Representatives in the US
Juan Ciscomani will be the first Latino Republican from Arizona to be elected to Congress. He will represent AZ-06. Ciscomani was born in Mexico and moved to the U.S. with his family when he was a child. He used to work at the Tucson Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and was Gov. Doug Ducey’s top advisor.
Robert Garcia, a Democrat who lives in CA-42, will be the first openly LGBTQ immigrant to be elected to Congress. Garcia has been the mayor of Long Beach. He came from Lima, Peru when he was 5 and moved to the United States in the early 1980s.
Yadira Caraveo, a Democrat running for the CO-08 seat, will be the first Latina from Colorado to be elected to Congress. Caraveo beat Republican state Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer to win the seat north of Denver. Caraveo is a state representative and the daughter of Mexican immigrants.
FL-10: Maxwell Frost, a Democrat, won the open seat in Florida’s 10th Congressional District. He will be the first member of Congress from the generation known as “Generation Z.”
The new representative, who is only 25, told CNN’s Poppy Harlow on November 9 that when President Joe Biden called to congratulate him, he said to him that when he was first elected as a senator at age 29, he was too young to be sworn in.
“He asked me if things were the same. I told him, “No, Mr. President, you were right. I’m old enough to take the oath of office on January 3.” So, it was wonderful to talk to him. “He was also elected at a young age, so he knows what it’s like,” Frost said on “CNN This Morning.”
Delia Ramirez, a Democrat from IL-03, will be the first Latina from Illinois to be elected to Congress. Ramirez was the first Guatemalan American to serve in the Illinois General Assembly. She was the daughter of Guatemalan immigrants and worked as a state representative near Chicago.
IL-17: Eric Sorensen, a Democrat, will be the first openly gay person from Illinois to be elected to Congress. Sorensen, a former meteorologist in Rockford and the Quad Cities, beat Republican Esther Joy King in the race to replace Democratic Rep. Cheri Bustos, who was leaving office.
MI-10: John James, a Republican from Michigan, will be the first Black Republican to be elected to Congress from Michigan. He won the open seat race for the redrawn 10th Congressional District in the Detroit suburbs and will be the state’s first Black Republican in Congress.
Shri Thanedar, a Democrat running in MI-13, will be the first Indian American from Michigan to be elected to Congress. Thunder came to the U.S. from India and was elected to the Michigan House in 2020. In 2018, he tried but failed to get the Democratic nomination for governor.
NY-03: In New York’s 3rd Congressional District, Republican George Santos won the first House election between two openly gay candidates. Santos beat Robert Zimmerman, a Democrat, for the seat on Long Island. Santos is the son of Brazilian immigrants.
Santos is going into the House under a lot of scrutinies because he admitted to lying about essential parts of his background. State and federal prosecutors are looking into his finances, and other lawmakers are angry about the lies on his resume.
OH-09: When she is sworn in for her 21st term representing the state’s 9th Congressional District, Democrat Marcy Kaptur will be the woman who has been in Congress the longest. Kaptur was first elected in 1982 and is currently the woman who has served in the House the longest. She will break the record set by Barbara Mikulski, who served in the House and Senate for a total of 40 years while representing Maryland.
OR-5 and 6: Lori Chavez-DeRemer, who is a Republican, and Andrea Salinas, who is a Democrat, will be the first two Latinos from Oregon to be elected to Congress. Chavez-DeRemer, Mexican American, will take over for Democratic Rep. Kurt Schrader in the 5th Congressional District. Salinas won the state’s newly made 6th Congressional District. His father came to the U.S. from Mexico.
PA-12: Summer Lee, a Democrat, will be the first Black woman from Pennsylvania to be elected to Congress. Lee, a state representative from the Pittsburgh area, will replace Democratic Rep. Mike Doyle, who is leaving office.
VT: Becca Balint, a Democrat, will be the first woman and first openly LGBTQ person from Vermont to be elected to Congress. Rep. Peter Welch was selected to be the state’s senator so that she will take his place.
WA-03: If Marie Gluesenkamp Perez wins, she will be the first Latina Democrat from Washington state to be elected to Congress. Gluesenkamp Perez, who owns an auto repair shop and whose father came to the U.S. from Mexico, beat Republican Joe Kent in the August top-two primary to replace Republican Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler, who came in third. Herrera Beutler was the first Hispanic person from Washington state to be elected to Congress.
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