The United States Congress is on a path to looking less male and white come January.
Should the Democrats take the House come November—which current predictions project as likely—the incoming 2019 Congress could have more people of color than it’s ever had in its 230-year history.
According to data acquired by Axios, white men comprised 97% of the House of Representatives 50 years ago. Their share of seats of power has slowly decreased, with people of color making up 45% and women making up one-third of House Democrats last year.
Republican Party data paints a very different picture: whereas 50 years ago women comprised 2.7% of the House GOP, that number has only grown to 10.5%. And the numbers are even more bleak when considering people of color. Minorities have gone from 0% representation to 6.7% in the Republican Party over the last 50 years.
Voter data from 2016 corroborates this trend: 40% of those who voted for Hillary Clinton were people of color, while 88% of Donald Trump voters were white.
With record-breaking numbers of women running for office—and women of color like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ayanna Pressley defeating the white, largely male incumbents in their primary races—next year’s House could look a lot more like the people that it’s supposed to represent.
