{"id":4849,"date":"2020-08-21T05:00:24","date_gmt":"2020-08-21T09:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jointcenter.org\/?p=4849"},"modified":"2021-11-04T15:42:55","modified_gmt":"2021-11-04T19:42:55","slug":"racial-diversity-among-top-staff-in-senate-personal-offices","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jointcenter.org\/racial-diversity-among-top-staff-in-senate-personal-offices\/","title":{"rendered":"Racial Diversity Among Top Staff in Senate Personal Offices"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><!-- VideographyWP Plugin Message: Automatic video embedding prevented by plugin options. --><br \/>\nToday, the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies released <a href=\"https:\/\/jointcenter.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/2020-Senate-Report-Draft__08-21-20-5AM.pdf\"><i>Racial Diversity Among Top Staff in Senate Personal Offices<\/i><\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>This report provides evidence regarding the lack of racial diversity among U.S. Senate personal office top staff positions. This report 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 data reflect Senate employment as of January 2020. For exclusive coverage of the report, see <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2020\/08\/21\/us\/politics\/top-senate-aides-diversity.html\"><i>The New York Times<\/i><\/a>. Additional media for this report can be found at the bottom of this page.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/jointcenter.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Racial-Diversity-Among-Top-Staff-in-Senate-Personal-Offices-Executive-Summary-1.pdf\">Click here for a 2-page summary of the report.<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dropbox.com\/sh\/0t64nzvpb4q8lqn\/AABXLJSUHDuW-0YwO6-T7SwKa?dl=0\">Click here for charts featured in this report.<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/jointcenter.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/FINAL-page-3-Racial-Diversity-Among-Top-Staff-in-Senate-Personal-Offices-Fact-Sheet-v3-4.pdf\">Click here for an 1-page infographic on the report.<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/jointcenter.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/2020-Senate-Report-Draft__08-21-20-5AM.pdf\">Read the full 25-page report here.<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The report was written by LaShonda Brenson, Ph.D.<\/p>\n<p>Key findings show:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><b><b>People of color make up 40% of the U.S. population, but only 11% of all Senate office top staff.<\/b><\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>When you break down the ratio of employees by racial group relative to the U.S. population, the results are alarming.<br \/>\n<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Latina\/os\n<ul>\n<li>18.5% &#8211; U.S. population<\/li>\n<li>3.8% &#8211; Senate top staffers<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\">African Americans\n<ul>\n<li>13.4% &#8211; U.S. population<\/li>\n<li>3.1% &#8211; Senate top staffers<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Asian Americans\/Pacific Islanders\n<ul>\n<li>6.1% &#8211; U.S. population<\/li>\n<li>2.7% &#8211; top staffers<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Native Americans\n<ul>\n<li>1.3 % &#8211; U.S. population,<\/li>\n<li>There are currently no Native American Senate top staffers<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Middle Eastern\/North Africans\n<ul>\n<li>0.5 % &#8211; U.S. population<\/li>\n<li>0.3 % &#8211; Senate top staffers<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Biracial Americans\n<ul>\n<li>2.7 % &#8211; U.S. population<\/li>\n<li>1% &#8211; Senate top staffers<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><b><b>In states where there are large shares of Black or Latina\/o residents &#8211; Senate offices hire relatively few Black or Latina\/o top staffers.<\/b><\/b><\/li>\n<li><b><b>People of color are underrepresented among top staff, even in Senate personal offices that represent large populations of color.<\/b><\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>In states with large shares of Black residents like AL, DE, GA, LA, MD, MS, NC, SC, NY, and VA:<\/b>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\">African Americans\n<ul>\n<li>27.1% of the population in these states<\/li>\n<li>Only 3.5% of the total top staff positions in these states\u2019 U.S. Senate offices<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>In states with large shares of Latina\/o residents like AZ, CA, CO, FL, IL, NV, NJ, NM, NY, and TX:<\/b>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Latina\/os\n<ul>\n<li>29.4% of the population in these states<\/li>\n<li>Only 13.6% of the top staff positions in these states\u2019 Senate offices<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>The three states with the highest share of Black residents that are represented by two Democratic U.S. Senators have no Black personal office top staff.\u00a0<\/b>\n<ul>\n<li>On average, African Americans account for 24.7% of the residents and 39.3% of the 2016 Democratic Party turnout in Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia, but none (0%) of the 17 top staff positions in the Senate personal offices of these states.<\/li>\n<li>In Georgia, Louisiana, and Mississippi\u2014the three states with the highest share of African American residents that are represented by two Republican U.S. Senators\u2014there are no Black top staff.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>In the last five years, the overall percentage of personal office top staff of color increased from 7.1% up to 11%, but Asian American\/Pacific Islander and Native American numbers declined.<\/b>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Racial diversity among Senate office top staff increased <\/b>among Latina\/os (2.4% to 3.8%) and African Americans (0.7% to 3.1%)<\/li>\n<li><b>Racial diversity among Senate office top staff declined <\/b>among Asian American\/Pacific Islanders (3.7% to 2.7%) and Native Americans (0.3% to 0%)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>For coverage of the report see <a href=\"https:\/\/abcnews.go.com\/US\/black-firsts-emerge-amid-nations-racial-reckoning-pressure\/story?id=72772077\"><em>ABC News<\/em><\/a>, <em><a href=\"https:\/\/thegrio.com\/2020\/08\/21\/only-11-percent-of-senate-aides-are-poc-study-finds\/\">The Grio<\/a>, The Hill, (&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/homenews\/senate\/513151-new-report-finds-that-top-senate-staffers-are-more-diverse-than-in-2015-but\">New report finds top Senate staffers are more diverse than in 2015 but still predominantly white<\/a>&#8221; and &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/homenews\/senate\/525124-hill-associations-pen-letter-to-congressional-leadership-urging-more-staff\">Hill associations push for more diversity in lawmakers&#8217; staffs<\/a>&#8220;), <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nevadacurrent.com\/blog\/top-staff-for-nevada-senators-reflect-diversity-and-thats-rare-says-report\/\">Nevada Current<\/a>, <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/newsletters\/huddle\/2020\/08\/21\/dejoy-in-the-hot-seat-490149\"><em>Politico<\/em><\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollcall.com\/2020\/08\/21\/people-of-color-hold-small-percentage-of-top-jobs-in-senate\/\"><em>Roll Call<\/em><\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/politics\/2021\/05\/11\/power-up-democratic-senators-consider-forming-bipoc-caucus-ahead-aapi-summit\/\"><em>Washington Post<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>For all press inquiries, contact <a href=\"mailto:press@jointcenter.org\">press@jointcenter.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Today, the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies released Racial Diversity Among Top Staff in Senate Personal Offices. This report provides evidence regarding the lack of racial diversity among&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":4850,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"mc4wp_mailchimp_campaign":[]},"categories":[1],"tags":[93,220,126,88],"jc_blog_category":[],"hashtags":[],"ppma_author":[142],"aioseo_notices":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Racial Diversity Among Top Staff in Senate Personal Offices - Joint Center<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/jointcenter.org\/racial-diversity-among-top-staff-in-senate-personal-offices\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Racial Diversity Among Top Staff in Senate Personal Offices - Joint Center\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Today, the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies released Racial Diversity Among Top Staff in Senate Personal Offices. This report provides evidence regarding the lack of racial diversity among&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/jointcenter.org\/racial-diversity-among-top-staff-in-senate-personal-offices\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Joint Center\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/JointCenter1970\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-08-21T09:00:24+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-11-04T19:42:55+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/jointcenter.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/senate-report-2020-scaled.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1736\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Dr. LaShonda Brenson\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@JointCenter\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@JointCenter\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Dr. LaShonda Brenson\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/jointcenter.org\/racial-diversity-among-top-staff-in-senate-personal-offices\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/jointcenter.org\/racial-diversity-among-top-staff-in-senate-personal-offices\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Dr. LaShonda Brenson\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/jointcenter.org\/#\/schema\/person\/ab9ec32fa0bce3362badde570c21bf76\"},\"headline\":\"Racial Diversity Among Top Staff in Senate Personal Offices\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-08-21T09:00:24+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-11-04T19:42:55+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/jointcenter.org\/racial-diversity-among-top-staff-in-senate-personal-offices\/\"},\"wordCount\":594,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/jointcenter.org\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"Data &amp; 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Prior to her current role, she served as the senior fellow of diversity and inclusion at the Joint Center. Prior to the Joint Center, Dr. Brenson served a civil rights analyst at the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. At the Commission, Dr. Brenson organized national briefings and wrote reports on municipal fines and fees and its impact on minority communities, minority voting rights, and women in prison. Previously, she was the research director at Project Vote, a national, nonpartisan, nonprofit organization founded on the belief that an organized, diverse electorate is the key to a better America. Dr. Brenson earned her bachelor's degree in Mathematics and Political Science from the University of Rochester, and her Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor. Using qualitative interviews with congressional staffers and quantitative methods, her dissertation research provides evidence that the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) and Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC), as institutions, matter. 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Prior to her current role, she served as the senior fellow of diversity and inclusion at the Joint Center. Prior to the Joint Center, Dr. Brenson served a civil rights analyst at the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. At the Commission, Dr. Brenson organized national briefings and wrote reports on municipal fines and fees and its impact on minority communities, minority voting rights, and women in prison. Previously, she was the research director at Project Vote, a national, nonpartisan, nonprofit organization founded on the belief that an organized, diverse electorate is the key to a better America. Dr. Brenson earned her bachelor's degree in Mathematics and Political Science from the University of Rochester, and her Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor. Using qualitative interviews with congressional staffers and quantitative methods, her dissertation research provides evidence that the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) and Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC), as institutions, matter. One way she demonstrates the added value of the CBC and CHC is by illustrating that when caucus members serve as caucus leaders, they introduce more bills because of their additional staff capacity.","url":"https:\/\/jointcenter.org\/author\/dr-lashonda-brenson\/"}]}},"authors":[{"term_id":142,"user_id":9,"is_guest":0,"slug":"dr-lashonda-brenson","display_name":"Dr. LaShonda Brenson","avatar_url":"https:\/\/jointcenter.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/LaShonda-Brenson-96x96.png","user_url":"","last_name":"Brenson","first_name":"Dr. LaShonda","description":"Dr. LaShonda Brenson is the senior researcher at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies. 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