Midterm Election Demographics Redux

Pretty much as predicted, the people who voted in the U.S. midterm elections were disproportionately older whites, according to exit polls, although the tilt toward the Republicans clearly took most people by surprise. Now the talk has turned to the demographics of those elected, and there are some surprises here, too, as Matthew Daly of Associated Press has chronicled:

The next Senate will be slightly younger than the current one. With several races still to be called, the 11 newly-minted senators set to take office in January are, on average, 16 years younger than the lawmakers they are replacing. Each incoming senator is younger than the departing senator — some by decades.

Elise Stefanik, a 30-year-old New York Republican, is the youngest woman ever elected to the House. Also making history is Mia Love, 38, whose election to a suburban Salt Lake City district made her the first black female Republican to win a seat in Congress.

Twenty-nine Latinos will serve in the House, the largest number ever, while the number of African-Americans in Congress will increase from 43 to at least 46, including three Republicans.

Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., who won a two-year term in a special election, is the first African-American senator from the South since just after the Civil War.

Despite these historic changes, Daly notes that the U.S. Congress is still predominantly a bunch of older white guys.