The top five religious affiliations in the 111th Congress were Roman Catholic (30.1%), Baptist (12.4%), Methodist (10.7%), Jewish (8.4%), and Presbyterian (8.1%).[3] Protestant denominations have held a large majority throughout congressional history, reflecting American's traditional demographics. In the 111th Congress, 54.7% of seats were held by members of Protestant denominations.
In 2007, Keith Ellison of Minnesota became the first practicing Muslim to become a member of the United States Congress. He was joined by André Carson of Indiana following a special election on March 11, 2008. Mazie Hirono of Hawaii and Hank Johnson of Georgia became the first 2 Buddhists to be elected to the United States Congress on November 7, 2006. Johnson is a member of the Soka Gakkai movement and Hirono is a member of the Jodo Shinshu sect, although she is non-practicing. Both are Japanese Buddhist oriented.
Nine members of the 111th Congress were categorized Not Given / Unspecified / Unavailable / Don't Know.
Hawaii was the only state that held a majority non-Christian House delegation; both representatives Mazie Hirono and Colleen Hanabusa are Buddhists.
Sexual orientation
There were six openly lesbian, gay, or bisexual members in the history of Congress. Gerry Studds (elected in 1972) became the first openly gay man to serve in congress when he publicly announced his sexuality in 1982.[5]Barney Frank (serving since 1981) first spoke publicly about his sexual orientation in 1987.[6]Steve Gunderson, elected in 1980 and outed in 1994,[7] and Jim Kolbe, elected in 1984 and outed in 1996,[8] are 2 other previous members of Congress who were openly gay. Current Senator Tammy Baldwin is the first and so far the only open lesbian to win election to Congress.[9] In 1998, she became the first ever openly gay person to win election to Congress as a non-incumbent. She went on to become the first openly gay person to win election to the U.S. Senate in 2012.[10] Former California representative Michael Huffington is bisexual, but did not come out until after his term had ended.[11]Jared Polis (who was elected in 2008 and assumed office on January 6, 2009) is the first openly gay man to have been elected to the House as a freshman. Republican representative Mark Foley's homosexuality was well known in his district, though he did not serve openly in Congress and did not come out publicly until after his term ended.[12][13]
Occupational background
Members of the 111th Congress come from a variety of occupational backgrounds. As of the start of the 111th Congress, members of Congress include:
Six members worked in media: 1 radio talk show host, 1 radio/television broadcaster, 1 radio broadcaster, 1 newscaster, 1 television reporter, and 1 television commentator
On December 17, 2012, Senators Frank Lautenberg and Daniel Akaka became the last remaining World War II veterans in the Senate after Senator Daniel Inouye died of respiratory complications. Representatives Ralph Hall and John Dingell were the final remaining WWII veterans in the House of Representatives, though Representative Hall lost his 2014 primary battle and Dean of the House Dingell retired at the end of that same congress. On January 3, 2013, Senator Lautenberg was the final remaining WWII veteran serving in the senate until his untimely death on June 3, 2013.
African Americans currently make up about 13% of the US population, but have historically been underrepresented in Congress. In the 111th Congress, 42 members (9.5%) of the House were African American. As of 2010, there was 1 African-American serving in the Senate. Roland Burris was sworn in as senator on January 15, 2009, after being appointed by Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich. Following the end of Burris's tenure in the Senate and his replacement by RepublicanMark Kirk on November 29, 2010, there were once again no African Americans serving in the Senate. Barack Obama previously held Burris's seat but resigned from his position on November 16, 2008, after winning the presidential election of 2008 and becoming the first African American to be elected President of the United States. Until the emancipation of enslaved African Americans after the Civil War and the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1866, blacks were generally barred from voting outside of the Northeast. As a result of these new laws, Joseph Rainey and Jefferson F. Long won election to Congress in majority-black districts and Hiram Rhodes Revels was appointed as senator from Mississippi (then a majority-black state) in 1870. However, the end of Reconstruction in 1876 marked a weakening of black rights and by 1901, when George Henry White left the House after losing a reelection bid, there were no African Americans left in Congress.
In 1929, Oscar Stanton de Priest became the first African American congressman since White. He and his successor, Arthur W. Mitchell, spent their tenure as the only African Americans in Congress while representing a majority-black House district in Chicago. Not until the election of Adam Clayton Powell Jr. of New York City's Harlem did Congress feature 2 African Americans serving at the same time in the modern era. The Voting Rights Act of 1965, which strengthened black voting rights, increased the position of black office-seekers. Shirley Chisholm became the first African American female member of Congress when she won a 1968 election in New York, while Andrew Young of Georgia became the first modern African American congressman from the South after he won election in 1972. In 1970, a year that saw the election of four black freshman congressman, black membership in the House reached double-digits.
Only eight African Americans have served in the U.S. Senate. Hiram Revels and Blanche Bruce both served during Reconstruction in then majority-black Mississippi. Popularly elected black senators are Edward Brooke (served 1967–79), Carol Moseley Braun (served 1993–99 as the first black female senator), Barack Obama (served 2005–08), and Cory Booker (2013-). Roland Burris (served 2008–2010) was appointed to finish the term of then-president-elect Obama, and Tim Scott was appointed in January 2013 to finish the term of Jim DeMint, who left the Senate to head the Heritage Foundation.[20] Brooke served in Massachusetts, while Braun, Obama, and Burris each held the same Illinois seat. Scott serves from South Carolina and was the first African-American U.S. senator from the South since Reconstruction. Booker won a special election in October 2013 and was the first African-American senator from New Jersey. He was elected to finish the term of the late Frank Lautenberg, who died in June 2013.[21] Both Scott and Booker face reelection in 2014 and, should they run and win, would become the first elected African-American U.S. senators to serve in the chamber concurrently.
Representation of Hispanics is somewhat complex; particularly, because of the different ways to define membership in this group. Hispanics represent over 14% of the U.S. population, while the Senate was 3% Hispanic and the House was approximately 5% (25 members) Hispanic. Considering that Hispanics make up only 4% of American voters, Hispanic political incorporation has been relatively high compared with previous immigrant groups. The Congressional Hispanic Caucus[22] has 21 members. José Manuel Gallegos, a Mexican American, was the first Hispanic in Congress. He was the first delegate to the US Congress from the Territory of New Mexico. The first to represent a state was Romualdo Pacheco, a Mexican American, who represented California in 1877. In 1929, Octaviano Ambrosio Larrazolo of New Mexico became the first Hispanic to be elected to the United States Senate. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a Cuban American first elected in 1989, was the first Hispanic woman in Congress. While Hispanic women have served in House, none have been elected to the Senate.
Unlike black Americans, Hispanics never were legally barred from the polls, and in New Mexico and California, they were a large and influential minority. Since the election of Dennis Chavez and Joachim O. Fernández to the House in 1931, Hispanics have continuously been represented in Congress. Most Hispanic members of Congress, including all elected prior to 1970, were of Mexican descent with the exception of Herman Badillo, who won election in 1970, becoming the first Puerto Rican from a mainland state in Congress. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen was elected in 1989 as the first Cuban American congresswoman.
Prior to 2005, only three Hispanics have won a term in the U.S. Senate. These members were Octaviano Larrazola (served 1928–29), Dennis Chavez (formerly of the House, and served 1935–62), and Joseph Montoya (also formerly a House member, served 1964–77), all of Mexican descent. However, 2 Hispanics won Senate seats in 2004, Ken Salazar and Mel Martinez (the first Cuban American senator). As of the 113th Congress, there are three Hispanics in the US Senate: Bob Menendez, a Democrat from New Jersey; Marco Rubio, a Republican from Florida; and Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas. They are all Cuban-American.
Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders have a high level of political incorporation in terms of their actual voting population. However, as a result of this group's historically low voting rates, overall political incorporation of the general population was relatively low. The population of this group has increased in size by 600% in the last 30 years[when?] due to immigration. Despite high levels of naturalization and voter outreach efforts, this primarily foreign-born community with less than 1% of voters has 2% of congressional population. As 4.4% of the total population in the United States falls into this category, this 2% still represents less than half of the total Asian American and Pacific Islander population.
There were eight members of Asian or Islander descent in the House and three in the Senate. Senator Daniel Inouye and Representatives Mike Honda, Doris Matsui, and Mazie Hirono are all Japanese Americans. Senator Daniel Akaka is a Native Hawaiian, Delegate Eni Faleomavaega is a Samoan, and Joseph Cao is a Vietnamese American. Bobby Scott of Virginia, who is also half African American, has Filipino American ancestry. Steve Austria of Ohio also claims Filipino American ethnicity. John Ensign of Nevada has claimed that he is 1⁄8 Filipino American, enlarging the number of those who claim to be Filipino American in Congress to the highest point since the Philippine Islands had been represented as a territory. Judy Chu became the first Chinese American woman in Congress when she won a special election in 2009. David Wu of Oregon is Taiwanese American.
Robert William Wilcox, a Native Hawaiian who served as Hawaiian territorial delegate from 1900 to 1903, was the first Pacific Islander chosen to serve in Congress. Benito Legarda y Tuason and Pablo Ocampo joined the House in 1907 as Resident Commissioners, becoming the first Asian Americans to serve in the Congress, and beginning the representation of the Philippines which ended in 1947. Dalip Singh Saund (served 1957–63) was the first South Asian American in Congress and was one of only two Indian Americans to be elected to the legislature. Hiram Fong, who served three decades in the Senate from 1959 to 1977, is the first and one of only two Chinese American members to have entered Congress. Daniel Inouye (serving since 1959) was the first Japanese American in the House and later the first in Senate. Patsy Mink (served 1965–77 and again from 1990 to 2002) was the first Asian American woman in Congress. Bobby Scott, elected in 1993, was the first US born member of Congress to have Filipino ancestry. David Wu, elected in 1998, was the only person of Taiwanese ancestry to serve in Congress at the time, while in 2009, Joseph Cao became the first Vietnamese American in the legislature.
Only five members of the U.S. Senate have ever been of Asian American or Pacific Islander backgrounds. Four of these politicians have been from Hawaii.
Native Americans
Compared with the European American, African American, Latino, and Asian/Pacific American communities, American Indians, who comprise 1.5% of the population, are the most underrepresented group. Tom Cole, a Chickasaw, and Markwayne Mullin, a Cherokee, are the only registered American Indians currently in Congress. Tracking Native American members of Congress is complex, since many people of mixed blood are not registered as part of the American Indian population. Charles Curtis, who was three-eighths Native American and had ancestry from a variety of different tribes, was elected in 1892 as the first U.S. representative from this group. Curtis accomplished several other firsts during his political tenure. He became the first American Indian to serve in the US Senate (in office 1907–13 and 1915–29), to lead a major party (served as Republican Senate Majority Leader from 1925 to 1929), and to obtain the office of Vice President.
Several of the nation's major tribes have been represented in Congress in limited number. Charles David Carter (served 1907–27) was the first Chickasaw in Congress; William Wirt Hastings (served 1915–35) was the first Cherokee in the legislature; Ben Reifel (served 1961–71) was the first Sioux to win election to the body. Other than Curtis, only a few members of the U.S. Senate have been American Indians. Robert Latham Owen (served 1907–25) and Ben Nighthorse Campbell (served 1993–2005 after several previous terms in the House and the first Cheyenne in Congress) are the others to have earned that distinction.
Middle Eastern Americans
Middle Eastern Americans also have typically low levels of voting incorporation; except, among a particular voting group. As a group, Middle Eastern Americans are not measured by the U.S. census, which, combined with differences in the definition of this group, makes measuring its percentage of the population difficult. Estimates place about 1.8% of the nation's population to be of this origin. Nearly all Middle Eastern members of Congress have been Lebanese Americans. George Kasem became the first Lebanese congressman when he won his first and only term in 1958. Since Abraham Kazen took office in 1967, serving until 1985, Lebanese Americans have consistently served in Congress. There are currently 2 Lebanese members of the House: Charles Boustany, and Darrell Issa.
Five members of the U.S. Senate have been of Middle Eastern descent, all five with Arab American ancestry and four of Lebanese descent. James Abourezk, who served from 1973 to 1979, became the first Lebanese American Senator. George Mitchell (served 1980–95), who is half Lebanese, became the first Middle Eastern American party leader, as he served as Senate Majority Leader from 1989 to 1995. James Abdnor (served 1981–87) and Spencer Abraham (served 1995–2001) also were Lebanese American senators, while John Sununu was the only person of Palestinian ancestry to serve in Congress. Member of Congress Anna Eshoo is also of Middle Eastern descent, she is an Assyrian.
Foreign-born Americans
This section needs to be updated. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information.(May 2011)
Two Senators were born overseas to U.S. citizen parents, John McCain of Arizona and Michael Bennet of Colorado, (who were born in the Panama Canal Zone and India, respectively.
Senator Ted Cruz (Texas) was born in Canada to a Cuban (U.S. permanent resident) father and a native-born American mother.
A majority of members of the 111th Congress fall into this category. This includes Chuck Grassley (president pro-tempore of the Senate), Nancy Pelosi (Speaker of the House of Representatives), Chuck Schumer (Democratic Senate Leader), Mitch McConnell (Republican Senate Leader), and Kevin McCarthy (Republican House Leader).
Elections for all House seats and 35 Senate seats were held on November 4, 2008, across the country. The Democratic Party increased its majority in both houses, and regained control of the White House before the end of the second term of George W. Bush.
Summary of the 2008 United States Senate elections results
