Congress is getting more diverse, but AANHPI still uderrepresented

SCREEN CAPTURE / NBC

Even though the House and Senate have increased the diversity of their members after the 2022 midterm elections, Asian Americans are still underrepresented in Congress. 

A quarter of voting members of the US Congress identify their race or ethnicity as something other than non-Hispanic White, making the 118th Congress the most racially and ethnically diverse to date, according to an analysis by the Pew Research Center.

Although progress is slowly changing the racial makeup of Congress, the nation's lawmaking body is by no means as diverse as the nation. The good news is it is the seventh time in a row that Congressional diversity has increased.

After the 2022 midterm elections, there are 18 Asian American members of Congress: two in the Senate and 16 in the House. That's one more than the 117th Congressional term. Asian Americans make up around 6% of the US, they make up only 2% of the Senate and 4% of the House.

All but two AANHPI members of Congress are Democrats.

The Pew analysis includes ftwo multiracial representatives who have more than one race or ethnic identity: Rep. Bobby Scott, D-Va., is counted as Black and Filipino American. Rep. Marilyn Strickland, D-Wash., is both the first Black lawmaker to represent her state and one of the first Korean American women to be elected to Congress.

Overall, 133 senators and representatives today identify as Asian American, Black, Hispanic, American Indian or Alaska Native, according to the Pew Research Center analysis of data from the Congressional Research Service. This number has nearly doubled in the two decades since the 108th Congress of 2003-05, which had 67 minority members.

Black members of the House come close to their national population; 13% of House members are Black, about equal to the total share of Black Americans. That's better than the 100-member Senate which has only three Black members.

Hispanic and AANHPI members of Congress still have a ways to go to catch up with their White and Black peers. In both chambers, Whites account for 75% of voting members in the 118th Congress, considerably more than their 59% share of the U.S. population.

FYI: Read more about the 118th Congress’ demographics:

• Education
• Age and generation
• LGBTQ status
• Race and ethnicity
• Gender
• Religion
• Military service
• Women of color
• Immigrants and children of immigrant

EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, news and views from an AANHPI perspective, follow @DioknoEd on Twitter or at his blog Views From the Edge.