Racial Diversity Among U.S. Senate State Directors

Senators and their staff invest significant time and resources providing constituent services in their state offices, so it is essential to understand the demographic makeup of the state directors who manage these offices. Senate state directors’ primary responsibilities include managing the state office(s) and overseeing all state office operations. State office staff help constituents navigate casework and federal government programs like Social Security. Senate state offices also provide guidance, assistance, and support for federal grants and community outreach.

The research follows the Joint Center’s August 2020 report, Racial Diversity Among Top Staff in Senate Personal Offices, that defines personal office top staff as all chiefs of staff, legislative directors, and communications directors in the Washington, DC personal offices of  U.S. Senators.  The Joint Center followed up with this research because some senators have people of color in state director roles and may consider these staff to be part of their office leadership.

The Joint Center analyzed the diversity of Senate staff in state offices who responded to the survey as of January 31, 2022. The Joint Center’s analysis finds that people of color make up 40% of the U.S. population, but only 24.2% of Senate state directors. Latina/os, African Americans, Native Americans, and Middle Eastern/North African (MENA) are underrepresented among Senate state directors when compared to their percentage of the U.S. population. Latina/os are 18.2 percent of the U.S. population but only 8.1 percent of Senate state directors. African Americans account for 12.2 percent of the U.S. population but only 7.1 percent of Senate state directors. Native Americans/Native Hawaiians are 0.8 percent of the U.S. population, but there are currently no Native American/Native Hawaiian state directors. Middle Eastern/North Africans are 0.5 percent of the U.S. population, but there are currently no Middle Eastern/North African state directors.

Chart 1: State Director Diversity vs. U.S. Population

Chart 2: State Director Diversity vs. U.S. Population, Detailed Breakdown

*Race and ethnicity questions are asked separately, so the percentages will not add up to 100%.

Senators with less than 10 years in office have more diverse state directors when compared to their more senior colleagues. People of color account for 38.5 percent of state directors in the offices of senators who have served for five or fewer years. This percentage is 29.2 percent in Senate state offices who have served in office from five to 10 years. People of color account for 9.5 percent of state directors for senators who served from 10 to 15 years and 17.9 percent for senators who served for 15 or more years.

Chart 3: State Director Diversity, by Tenure of Senator

Diversity among state directors increases as the diversity in a region’s population increases. In addition, senators in the Northeast region have the smallest gap between the percent of people of color population in the region and the percent of diverse state directors (25.6 percent vs. 22.2 percent). Senators in the Midwest region have the most significant gap between the percent of people of color population in the region and the percent of diverse state directors (22 percent vs. 12.5 percent).

Chart 4: State Director Diversity, by Region

Democratic Senate state directors seem to be more reflective of their party’s voters of color than Republican Senate state directors. People of color account for 36 percent of state directors in Democratic offices and approximately 37.9 percent of President Biden’s voters during the 2020 general election. However, people of color account for about 12.2 percent of state directors in Republican offices, but approximately 29.6 percent of former President Trump’s 2020 overall voters during the general election.

Chart 5: State Director Diversity, by Party vs. Presidential Vote Share

Senators must hire diverse state directors to manage the office(s) that help constituents navigate casework and federal government programs. Diversifying key staff in the U.S. Congress is especially important now, as the lack of diverse staff impairs the ability of senators to understand the diverse perspectives of their states and represent all Americans effectively.

We applaud the following U.S. Senate state offices that have a state director who identifies as a person of color in January 2022.