Opinion: More diversity needed among top Congressional staff
Alexandra Coppadge is the board chair of Nexters Political Action Committee, a Delaware-based group dedicated to electing African Americans and non-black candidates who advocate for initiatives that positively impact the African American community.
Diversity and inclusion are not a matter of political correctness. They are the key to growth.
A wide range of studies indicate that increased diversity in the workplace provides access to a greater pool of talent and allows organizations to become more effective, successful and profitable. Yet, a recent report issued by the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies highlighted the alarming lack of racial diversity among top staff members in Congress.
While people of color account for 38 percent of the U.S. population, they only represent 13.7 percent of all top House staff.
And as it relates to racial diversity within its senior staff members, Delaware’s congressional delegation ranked among the five worst states.
Despite minorities accounting for more than 35 percent of Delaware’s population, there are no people of color serving as senior staffers for the offices of Delaware’s two U.S. senators. The delegation’s only two top staffers of color both work for U.S. Representative Lisa Blunt Rochester – who is also the first African American and woman to represent Delaware in Congress.
Hiring people of color to senior level positions, such as the chief of staff, legislative director, and communications director, has not been a priority for our congressional delegation.
And the numbers don’t lie.
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While African Americans represented 34 percent of Delaware’s Democratic Party’s voters for the 2016 election, according to the Joint Center, in the top personal and full committee offices for Delaware’s U.S. House and Senate members there is only one African American. There is only one Asian American. And there are no Latinos or Native Americans serving in senior staff positions.
This means 80 percent of the top staff for Delaware’s U.S. House and Senate Members are white.
Minorities are also unrepresented in mid-level positions, which are considered a pipeline to senior roles. These roles are instrumental in developing political leaders of the future. African Americans make up only 8.3 percent of Senator Carper’s mid-level staff and only 6.3 percent of Senator Coons’ mid-level staff.
While there is currently an inequitable number and distribution of people of color on the senior staff lists; we do applaud the delegation’s engagement and placement of women among the ranks of some of their top staff.
Three of Senator Carper’s top four staffers are women, while Congresswoman Blunt Rochester employs the delegation’s only top female staffer, who is also a person of color.
Unfortunately, none of Senator Coons’ top three staffers are women.
Why does this matter? Because there is a plethora of talented minorities – at every professional level – who could be tapped for key staffing roles within the offices of our U.S. Senators and Representative.
Elected officials cannot effectively represent and advocate for the interests of all their constituents if their senior advisers aren’t diverse and don’t fully reflect the communities they serve.
In order to successfully fight for policies and legislation on issues relevant to people of color, there must be people of color not only in the room but who also have a seat at the table.
However, it’s important to note that these numbers do not reflect a complete picture of the staffing for Delaware’s congressional delegation. According to the Senate Democratic Diversity Initiative, Senator Carper reported that 46 percent of his staff was comprised of people of color, while Senator Coons reported people of color made up 21 percent of his staff.
These higher overall diversity numbers indicate that minority staffers are primarily designated to lower-level or home office positions.
Are these positions valuable? Yes. But is there a difference between an administrative assistant and a senior executive? Absolutely.
The newly sworn-in 116th Congress represents the most racially, ethnically and gender diverse group of representatives elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in American history. Yet, the Joint Center’s live tracker indicates that only 26 percent of all top staffers hired by the new members are people of color—which continues to lag behind the diversity of the American population.
As Nexters, a political action committee focused on electing African Americans and non-Black candidates who advocate for initiatives that positively impact the African American community. We strongly believe it’s the time to see the communities who helped to elect these leaders into office reflected in their staff directories.
We call upon our elected officials to set the example for creating diverse and inclusive work environments.
We call upon our U.S. Senators and U.S. Representative to not only hire people of color to senior and mid-level positions, but to also ensure increasing the number of minorities remains an active priority. So, there staffs appropriately represent the make-up of our state.
Nexters has fully supported each member of Delaware’s congressional delegation, so we embrace the opportunity to work collaboratively to address their offices’ lack of diversity.
And we will share with communities across the State of Delaware the progress of these collective efforts with our elected officials to increase their number of staff and senior advisers that look like the constituents who elected them.