The incoming Congress will be historic for many reasons, including the House of Representatives’ highest share of Latino lawyers ever. Fourteen newly elected candidates will join the 34 incumbents who held their seats this cycle, meaning the next House will be nearly 11 percent Latino.
Those 14 new members represent all kinds of communities: rural, suburban, and urban; they’re from competitive swing districts and partisan strongholds; and from states with newly burgeoning Latino populations and those with longstanding Latino communities. Together, they demonstrate the increasing ideological diversity of Latinos in the United States.
Both sides’ additions to Congress will bring many firsts, including the first Congress member from Generation Z (elected in Florida), the first gay immigrant (elected in California), and the first Midwestern Latina (from Illinois). It will also bring new representation from states that haven’t elected a Latino before, like two representatives from Oregon and one from Washington state, as well as the official election of a Latino senator from California and the reelection of the first and only Latina in the Senate.
Beyond those historic firsts is what these Republicans and Democrats reveal about America: that the country is in a moment of growing Latino power that’s inclusive of differing ideas of what it means to be Latino and American. The new class will showcase the breadth of Latino perspectives on the role of government, racial or ethnic solidarity, and religious and family values.
Robert Garcia, the mayor of Long Beach, California, will be the first LGBTQ immigrant to be elected to Congress, after serving two terms as the first gay mayor of Long Beach. His district of him, which covers majority Latino cities south of Los Angeles and the port city he led, was created through redistricting this year after California lost a congressional seat for the first time in its history.
Maxwell Alejandro Frost, a 25-year-old organizer and activist, made history as the first Afro-Cuban and first member of Generation Z to be elected to Congress. When he takes office, he’ll be the youngest member of Congress, and part of a group of “real progressive Latinos that are showing folks that the values of our culture and the values of our party can and should be aligned,” he told.
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