Senate Democrats are releasing their annual employee diversity study on Wednesday amid a growing partisan divide over the value of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives.
According to the survey, among Democratic Senate staffers, 41% identify as non-Caucasian, 57% are female, and 17% identify as LGBTQ.
The 2024 survey shows an uptick in racial and ethnic diversity starting in 2023 and a significant jump from 2017, when the study was first conducted and about a third of all Democratic employees identified as non-Caucasian.
“When I became majority leader, I promised to work with my colleagues to increase the diversity of Senate positions to reflect the communities they serve. When we have diverse positions and different voices are well represented, we enact better policies,” said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (DN.Y.).
“Today, I am proud to say that more Democratic Senate staff than ever before are people of color and that we have reached historic milestones in representation. We still have more work to do, but as we move forward, I am encouraged to see our caucus offices become more diverse each year.”
Latinos represent the largest non-Caucasian ethnic group surveyed; 15 percent of all Democratic staffers say they are Hispanic, while 14 percent identify as African American, 11 percent as Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI), 3 percent as Middle Eastern or Northern Africa and 2 percent as Native Americans, Hawaiians or Alaskans.
Democrats have pushed for years to expand entry opportunities for congressional staffers to more closely resemble the states and districts they work for, but progress on that front has moved slowly.
And Senate membership, in part due to senators’ six-year terms, has been even slower to keep up with national demographic trends.
Of the 51 senators who support Democrats, four are Hispanic – although Senator Bob Menendez (NJ) is scheduled to resign from his position on August 20 – three are African-American and two are of Asian descent.
Diversity in employee gender and sexual preferences is also at the forefront of compliance.
Although more than half of all Democratic staffers and more than half of all Democratic chiefs of staff are women, only 15 Democrats in the Senate are women, about 30% of the caucus.
And only two, about 4%, identify as LGBTQ, compared to 17% of all employees.
But behind the scenes, women run the show: 44 Democratic offices in the Senate have a majority female staff.
Although only 14 percent of positions are majority non-Caucasian, all Democratic positions in the Senate are in the double digits, and in many cases, the lack or presence of racial or ethnic diversity reflects the demographics of each state.
The administrative staff who work for Senator Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), for example, are 77% non-white and 49% AAPI.
Just 21 percent of Hawaiians identify as white, while 36.5 percent identify as Asian, 19.6 percent as multiracial and 9.7 percent as Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islander, according to the Census Bureau. USA.
Senators Jon Tester (D-Mont.) and Joe Manchin (IW.Va.) each employ a staff that is 12% non-Caucasian, according to research, a reflection of their states’ demographics.
In Montana, 84.6% of the population identifies as white, according to the Census, as do 90.7% of West Virginians.
The survey was conducted exclusively among Democratic incumbents, meaning the exercise will likely continue in the future regardless of whether Democrats maintain their majority in the Senate.
Efforts to proactively calculate and address racial, gender, and sexual preference representation have taken on a new politicized tone amid growing Republican resistance to DEI policies.
That debate has had repercussions on the presidential race, with several Republican members of Congress referring to Vice President Harris as a “DEI contractor,” implying that her race, not her qualifications or experience, propelled her into the presidential race. top of the presidential ticket.
This story originally appeared on thehill.com read the full story
