With Democrats winning control of Congress, there will be a wave of new members taking the gavel of the 21 House Committees. In Democratic tradition, the most likely individuals to chair these committee are the ranking members currently serving on each committee. If that scenario holds, here’s a look at the demographic makeup of the potential new House committee chairs compared to the 115th Congress chairs (with an interactive spreadsheet created using Quorum below).
Average Age: 68 years old
115th Congress Republican Chairs: 63 years old
Average Terms Served in House: 12 terms (24 years)
115th Congress Republican Chairs: 9 terms (18 years)
Gender Composition: 15 men, 4 women (2 TBD)
115th Congress Republican Chairs: 19 men, 2 women
Racial Composition: 12 White, 5 African American, 2 Hispanic/Latino (2 TBD)
115th Congress Republican Chairs: 20 White, 1 Hispanic/Latino
Previously Chaired Committee: 3 of 21
(Note on Methodology: Committee data and demographic data pulled using Quorum’s Federal product. This analysis does not include the Committee on Veterans’ Affairs as the current ranking member, Rep. Tim Walz (D-MN-1), retired his seat to run for Governor of Minnesota or the Committee on House Administration as the current ranking member, Rep. Bob Brady (D-PA-1) is retiring from Congress).
