Congressional aides are more racially diverse than ever before

(Photo by Melina Mara/The Washington Post via Getty Images)

• Congressional staffers are more racially diverse than ever before.
• Twenty-two percent of aides in the House of Representatives are non-white, as are 17% of aides in the Senate.
• Staffers working for Democratic lawmakers make up the majority of non-whites — around one out of three staffers work in the House and one in four work in the Senate.

Congressional staffers are more racially diverse than ever before, according to a LegiStorm analysis.

Twenty-two percent of aides in the House of Representatives are non-white; in the Senate 17% of aides were people of color.

Staffers working for Democratic lawmakers make up the majority of people of color working for Congress — around one in three staffers in the House and one in four in the Senate identify as non-white.

For the Republicans, 6% of House staffers are non-white, compared to 7% of Senate staffers.

Read more: A heated exchange between Maxine Waters and Steve Mnuchin devolved into a squabble over whether he could leave the hearing or not

INSIDER contacted LegiStorm for more information about this report.

The number of Democrats, who traditionally hire more people of color, outnumber their Republican colleagues in the House of Representatives. There are currently 235 Democrats in the House and 197 Republicans (and three vacancies).

Lawmakers in Congress are also more racially diverse. Democratic Reps. Sharice Davids of Kansas and Deb Haaland of New Mexico became the first two Native American women to serve in Congress; and Democratic Reps. Veronica Escobar and Sylvia Garcia became the first two Latinas to represent Texas.

A record number of women are serving in Congress. The new session is comprised of 114 women, including the youngest woman ever elected, 29-year-old Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York.

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SEE ALSO: A heated exchange between Maxine Waters and Steve Mnuchin devolved into a squabble over whether he could leave the hearing or not

Source: Business Insider – dchoi@businessinsider.com (David Choi)