A flyer showing the faces of incoming congressional representatives started circulating on Capitol Hill Tuesday, and let's just say it wasn't a great look for Republicans.While the flyer doesn’t include every face of every new member of Congress, it’s a snapshot of the congressional GOP: Namely, it’s very white and very male. Thirty of the 31 new Republicans elected to the House are white men, according to NBC News, and they’re all heterosexual. (No openly LGBTQ candidates even a won GOP House primary.) So far, West Virginia’s Carol Miller is the only Republican woman to join the House GOP ranks this year.
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But Republican Young Kim, who may become the first Korean-American woman in Congress, is poised to join that class: She’s currently leading Democrat Gil Cisneros by just over 700 votes in the race for California’s 39th Congressional District. Republican Rep. Mia Love, the lone black Republican woman in Congress, may also manage to hold onto her seat in the state’s 4th District. In total, nine House races remain uncalled.Overall, Republicans’ diversity in the House will also shrink. Between retirements, resignations, and losses, the number of non-white Republicans will drop by six between the 115th Congress and the 116th, according to statistics compiled by USA Today.Democrats’ diversity, on the other hand, is on the rise: The House will now have 33 Latino Democrats, up from 29, and 48 black Democrats, up from 42. Another 14 Democrats are Asian or of another heritage, according to USA Today.Two of the House’s new Democrats, Sharice Davids of Kansas and Deb Haaland of New Mexico, will be the first Native American women in Congress. In total, a record 13 women of color — all Democrats — will enter the House as new members. Four of the new House Democrats are also openly LGBTQ.“The percentage of white men as a share of House Democrats is set to decline from 41 percent to 38 percent as a result of the 2018 election,” as David Wasserman, House editor at the nonpartisan Cook Political Report, tweeted on Sunday.“Meanwhile, the percentage of white men as a share of House Republicans is on track to rise from 86 percent to 90 percent,” he added.Cover image: Carol Miller receives a congratulatory phone call from Congressman Steve Stivers (R-OH) after speaking with the media following being elected to the U.S. House in West Virginia's 3rd congressional district over Democrat Richard Ojeda on Tuesday, Nov. 6, 2018, at her home in Huntington, W.Va. (Sholten Singer/The Herald-Dispatch via AP)