Hill Diversity

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Joint Center Tracker of Racial Diversity of Top Staff Hires in 116th Congress

The charts below include racial diversity data on top staff (chiefs of staff, legislative directors, and communications directors) hired by newly-elected Members of the U.S. House and U.S. Senate for the 116th Congress. The top staff in this table were offered and accepted staff positions by the newly-elected Members for the 116th Congress, which started on January 3, 2019.

To see data on top staff of color hired by returning Members, click here.

The data on this site is updated frequently, and are based on information submitted to the Joint Center from various credible sources. The data are unofficial, however, as it has not been examined using the Joint Center’s research report methodology that identifies top staff on LegiStorm and confirms the data through several follow up contacts with the top staff in the position, a Member’s office, and staff associations of color.

To provide corrections to the data below send an email with “CORRECTION” in the subject matter line to research@jointcenter.org.

To provide information about new hires who should be listed below, please click here.

The Joint Center’s September report found that people of color account for 38 percent of the U.S. population, but only 13.7 percent of U.S. House top staff. An earlier report found people of color accounted for only 7.1 percent of U.S. Senate top staff.

This data was last updated on May 8, 2019. As of 5/8/19, people of color accounted for 19.85 percent of top staff hired by newly-elected U.S. House Members (25.84 percent of Democratic top staff and 7.14 percent of Republican top staff), and 7.7 percent of top staff hired by newly-elected U.S. Senators.

TBD = To be determined because we have no information that the position(s) has been filled.
* (after Race):
*This data has not yet been confirmed by the Member’s office or the staffer.
**Two emails have been sent to the Member’s office but the office has not responded to correct or confirm the data.

M/F = Male/Female
AAPI = Asian American/Pacific Islander
MENA = Middle Eastern/North African