THE 118TH CONGRESS
A new Congress was sworn in Jan. 7 once Rep. Kevin Mccarthy was elected House speaker after multiple days of negotiations and 15 rounds of voting in the longest speaker contest in over 160 years. Here’s a look at today’s Congress and how it compares to th
The 2022 election saw all 435 House seats and 35 Senate seats up for grabs. About 112 million people voted. That equates to a turnout rate of 46.8%. About 55% of the votes were cast by mail.
The Democrats picked up one seat in the Senate, breaking what had been a 50-50 tie. (Technically, the Senate has 48 Democrats, 49 Republicans and three independents. All three independents caucus with the Democrats, giving them the majority.
In the House, Rep. Kevin Mccarthy was elected the speaker on Jan. 7. He will preside over the chamber for the next two years. Speaker Mccarthy swore in 74 freshman members after he was elected.
“As speaker of the House, my ultimate responsibility is not to my party, my conference, or even our Congress. My responsibility — our responsibility — is to our country,” Mccarthy told the chamber.
Rep. Steve Scalise was elected majority leader. Rep. Hakeem Jeffries was elected minority leader, becoming the first Black person to lead a major political party in Congress.
Genders in the House
The new House of Representatives will be the most racially diverse in the nation's history, but still lags far behind the diversity of the general population.
At least 118 (27.1%) women will serve in the House, beating the record of 102 (23.4%) set in 2019.
Eighty-nine Democratic women will serve in the House, tying the record set in 2019.
Twenty-nine Republican women will serve in the House, breaking the record of 25, set in 2006.
Racial and ethnic diversity
The Pew Research Center says that despite growing racial and ethnic diversity on Capitol Hill, members of Congress still are far more likely than the overall U.S. population to be non-hispanic White (75% vs. 59%). This gap is about as wide as it was in 1981 when 94% of members of Congress were White, compared with 80% of the U.S. population. AGE: The 118th Congress is one of the oldest on record. The average age in the Senate is 63.9 years. That makes it the second-oldest, only behind the 117th Congress. The oldest senator is Dianne Feinstein of California, who will turn 90 in June. The youngest is Jon Ossoff of Georgia, who will turn 36 next month. The oldest representative is Grace Napolitano, a Democrat from California, who turned 86 last month. The youngest is 25-year-old Maxwell Frost, a Democrat from Florida, the first Gen Z member of Congress.