The Most Diverse Congress Ever—With 131 Women—Is Sworn In
Despite the ongoing government shutdown, something momentous has just occurred on Capitol Hill, with the most ever diverse Congress swearing in officially today. The House of Representatives will have a new majority, thanks to 235 Democrats and 199 Republicans (one congressional race in North Carolina is still unresolved). In the Senate, there will be 53 Republicans and 47 Democrats. This crop of new members has the greatest race, gender, and class diversity ever seen before, with record numbers of women of color in particular taking an oath of service, or “gaveling in.”
We’ve already told you about many of the progressive freshmen who stormed through hotly contested primary and midterm elections to win over seats from both Republicans in formerly red districts and from more establishment Democrats who had more money and more name recognition than many of the upstart candidates who bested them at the polls.
There’s Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the youngest woman in Congress at 29, who has become a face of this new energetic political movement—and not just because she surprised naysayers early on with her win over Democrat Joe Crowley in New York’s 14th District in June. Since becoming a representative-elect, Ocasio-Cortez has already shaken up the floor with proposal for a select committee on the Green New Deal and, more recently, by saying she would refuse to vote yes on Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s rules package if it had a pay-as-you-go provision for the deficit.
Ocasio-Cortez is joined in the new progressive caucus in the House by Ilhan Omar (MN-5) and Rashida Tlaib (MI-13), who will together become the first Muslim women to be elected to Congress. Earlier today, Omar, who is Somali-American and a former refugee, shared a photo of herself with members of the Congressional Black Caucus at their own swearing-in ceremony, which is the largest in history. Omar is the first woman to wear a hijab on the floor. Tlaib, who is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America (along with Ocasio-Cortez), reportedly swore in on Thomas Jefferson’s copy of the Koran, which is housed in the Library of Congress. Tlaib wrote about the traditional Palestinian thobe she would wear for the ceremony, saying, “Throughout my career in public service, the residents I have had the privilege of fighting for have embraced who I am, especially my Palestinian roots. This is what I want to bring to the United States Congress, an unapologetic display of the fabric of the people in this country.”
There are—literally—too many new reps who have achieved firsts to list here, including Ayanna Pressley (MA-7), the first black House member from Massachusetts, and Jahana Hayes (CT-5), the first black representative in Congress from Connecticut. Sharice Davids (KS-3) is Kansas’s first openly LGBT representative, and with Deb Haaland (NM-1) is one of the first Native American women to take a House seat. Many new members have also stood out for their support of working people, rejecting corporate donations and campaigning on issues like Medicare for All, free college tuition, and paid parental leave.
New members were present in the House for their first vote with their colleagues: to determine whether Nancy Pelosi would in fact become Speaker for the second time (she previously held the position, the first woman to do so, from 2007 to 2011). Tlaib, Ocasio-Cortez, and others were seated with their families and called our their votes for Speaker; Pelosi won with 219 votes, the second Speaker to ever reclaim the gavel:
For many critics of President Trump, the most exciting development in Congress is the newly Democrat-controlled House with Nancy Pelosi at the helm. Pelosi and other Democrats have discussed a renewed push for Trump’s tax returns, as well as bringing more of his Cabinet members to testify in front of Congress. (The commander in chief decided to start the day by tweeting something insulting about Elizabeth Warren.) Regardless of our impeachment fantasies, it feels pretty good to see a Congress that looks a little bit more like the people it represents.
