Divided Government

In the 2022 elections, voters chose a divided government. Voters elected 222 Republicans to the House of Representatives and 213 Democrats giving Republicans control. They gave a one seat majority (51-49) to Democrats in the Senate. The White House remains in the hands of a Democrat, Joe Biden. The presidential election is not until 2024. The members of Congress for the next two years will be sworn in on Tuesday January 3rd.

During the last two years the Senate was comprised of 50 Democrats and 50 Republicans. Democrats had an advantage, however, because the Vice-President, Kamala Harris, could break any tie. The 50 Democratic seats in the last two years included Arizona Senator Kyrsten Sinema, who switched parties after the last election.

Senator Sinema had been elected twice as a Democrat, but suddenly switched her affiliation to Independent after the November 2022 election. She was not up for re-election in 2022. She plans to caucus with the Democrats, however, not the Republicans—at least for now. So, due to the victory of Senator Warnock in Georgia’s runoff, the Senate will be divided 51-49, with Democrats in the majority.

The Democratic majority is actually comprised of 48 Democrats and 3 Independents, who caucus with the Democrats. The Independents are Bernie Sanders of Vermont, Angus King, of Maine, and now Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona.

What this means is that the leadership of the Senate and the Chairs of all the standing committees in the upcoming 118th Congress will be Democrats, not Republicans. The Majority Leader can name one of the Independents to chair a committee if he chooses. The Senate has 20 permanent committees and 4 joint committees. Special committees can be established if leadership and members agree.

The 2022 Congressional election made history because there is a record number of women who will serve in both the House and the Senate of the United States. Jan 3rd, 149 women will be sworn in, the most in history Sadly, this is only two numbers higher than in the current Congress. Even slow, long overdue progress is still progress.

In addition to women in general, a record number of Black and Latina women were elected to in this Congress. There will be 18 Latinas in the House for a total of 18, the most in US Legislative history. In addition, there will be one more black woman, bringing the total from 26 to 27. More than half of the 22 women Congressmen entering the House for the first time are women of color. This increases the growing diversity of that chamber. The year 2022 saw the election of the first Latinas to represent Colorado, Illinois, and Oregon in Congress.

Democrat Alex Padilla was elected to the Senate from California--the first Latino senator elected from that state. Maxwell Alejandro Frost, a 25-year-old community leader, was elected to the House becoming the first member of Generation Z to hold a seat. He is also the first black of Cuban origin elected to Congress. Both Padilla and Frost are Democrats.

In addition to racial and ethnic diversity, there is another sweeping change that will immediately noticeable when the gavel bangs the 118th Congress into session. That is that the average age of Democratic leaders and committee chairs has dropped significantly.

House Democrats chose Hakeem Jeffries of New York to replace Pelosi as the top Democrat in the House of Representatives. Current Speaker Pelosi is on her 80s whereas as Jeffries is 52. Massachusetts Rep. Katherine Clark, 59, will serve as minority leader, and California Rep. Peter Aguilar, 43, will lead the caucus. All of them are a generation younger than their predecessors.

For reasons only they know, Republicans are far behind Democrats in electing black, brown member to Congress.

It will be interesting to see how the youngsters do, especially being in the minority. Stay tuned.