White men are a minority in the Democrats' 2018 class of congressional candidates

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is a new face of the 2018 Democrats

(Image credit: Scott Heins/Getty Images)

published 11 September 2018

Democrats have nominated a record number of women for Congress this year — 180 candidates, versus the previous record, 120, according to the Rutgers Center for American Women and Politics — but that's just the beginning. When you add in the 133 people of color running for Congress as Democrats, "white men are in the minority in the House Democratic candidate pool," Politico reports. And, 158 Democratic candidates are running for office for the first time. Politico adds:

In the 125 districts where a Democratic incumbent is leaving office or a Republican seat is at risk of flipping, according to Politico's race ratings, more than half the nominees (65) are women. An overlapping group of 30 Democratic primary winners are people of color, and 73 of them have never run for elected office before, tapping into voter disdain for politics as usual. Their success in primaries could herald a major shift in Congress, which is majority-white, majority-male and still mostly made up of former state legislators who climbed the political ladder to Washington. [Politico]

Republicans are running female candidates, too — 52, by Politico's count, including a first-ever Korean-American woman in California and a Latina nominee in Arizona — but their number is "dwarfed by the Democrats' totals," Politico says. And that could spell trouble for Republicans, as female candidates attract votes from suburban women, a demographic that's "not trending toward us right now," says GOP consultant Mike Noble. "Those suburban women are a key bloc that we're tracking, and they're not big fans of Trump."

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.