Senate sees drop in Black top staffers: report 

A new report has found diversity to be woefully lacking among top Senate staffers, with Black Americans most underrepresented. 

The Hill received an exclusive look at the report conducted by the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, which found that people of color make up less than 16 percent of all top staffers despite making up more than 41 percent of the country’s population.   

Of the 100 chiefs of staff, there are eight Latino staffers, three Asian American Pacific Islander staffers, two biracial staffers, one Middle Eastern and North African staffer, one African American staffer and one Native American staffer.

LaShonda Brenson, senior researcher at the Joint Center, told The Hill that having diverse staff is vital to creating inclusive legislation.

“I want voters to know that their member of Congress, their senator, is only one person and so they can only do so much. They really rely on a team of experts — that is their staff — to help them get the job done right,” Brenson said.

“Having a diverse staff really pushes them and opens them up to different experiences that they may not have, and that can really help to inform the senator how to vote on an issue and help us to get policies that are reflective of Americans in terms of their needs and interests.”

Representation of staffers of color actually increased from 11 percent to 15.8 percent between 2020 and 2023, but the percentage of Black top staffers decreased from 3.1 percent to 2.1 percent. Most of these Black top staffers are employed by Black or nonwhite senators. 

“It shouldn’t just be up to diverse senators to hire and make advancements in terms of diverse staff and investing in that, because we know how rare it is for a person of color to win a statewide election,” Brenson said.

The numbers were not only surprising, Brenson added, but “troubling,” and were the result of both hiring practices and lack of retention. 

Black top staffers did not receive internal promotion, whereas others could go from a legislative assistant to legislative director. For promotion, Black staffers had to seek employment opportunities in other offices. 

All Black top staff hired in January 2020 were gone by June 2023.

It’s unclear why this issue is unique to Black staffers, Brenson said, but added that it must be something Congress determines and addresses.  

Democratic offices had more diverse staffers than Republicans, but their offices still didn’t match the diversity of their voting base. 

Though people of color make up 36 percent of Democratic voters, they account for only 24 percent of Democratic personal office top staff. 

Black Americans, who account for 17 percent of Democratic registered voters, only make up 4 percent of Democratic offices top staff.

“Senate Democrats know that they have an issue in terms of the recruitment and retention of diverse staff,” Brenson said. 

That knowledge is in part because of the Democratic Diversity Initiative, which began under Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and has been releasing data since 2017 on the diversity of staffers in the Senate. 

“Even though Democrats are doing well, relative to Republicans, that shouldn’t be their only benchmark,” Brenson said. “They should also look at the fact that people of color disproportionately vote democratic, and so they don’t currently meet the 40-percent threshold. While they’re doing better than their colleagues, they actually can still improve.”

The Joint Center has been publishing the diversity studies since 2015. Recent studies from the House of Representatives showed similar issues. 

“We’ve seen great work across institutions, but as you can see, there remains to be seen more work, particularly as relates to Black staff in terms of not only the hiring, but also the retention and promotion of Black staff,” Brenson said.