While senators make the final decisions for their offices, top committee staff wield significant influence due to their deep subject matter expertise in specific policy areas. Corporations, advocacy organizations, news media, personal Senate office staff, and other actors look to top committee staff as experts. Since the U.S. Senate already lacks racial diversity among its elected members, developing more racially diverse top staff in committee offices could help offset this lack of diversity. This report, Unrepresented: Black and Latino Leadership Among Senate Committee Top Staff, provides evidence regarding the lack of Black and Latina/o representation among U.S. Senate committee office top staff positions. This report defines committee office top staff as all staff directors, deputy staff directors, general counsels, policy directors, and chief counsels in Senate committee offices. The data reflect Senate employment as of March 31, 2026. Key findings show:
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Since our 2021 report, almost all racial and ethnic groups observed an increase in the number of Senate committee top staff, except for Black and Native Americans, who remained at three and two staff members in 2026, respectively. There were much more pronounced increases in diverse top committee staff among many other racial and ethnic groups.
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Blacks and Latina/os are greatly underrepresented as Senate staff directors. Black Americans account for 11.9 percent of the U.S. population but only 2.7 percent of Senate staff directors. Latina/os are 19.3 percent of the U.S. population, but there are no Latina/o Senate committee staff directors. Yet the overall percentage of Senate staff directors of color increased from 7.9 to 18.9 percent, stemming from an increase for Asian American/ Pacific Islanders, Native Americans, and Middle Eastern/North African staffers.
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Among Senate committee top staff (excluding staff directors), only 2.3 percent are African American and 4.7 percent are Latina/o. This low representation of African Americans and Latina/os makes people of color representation a low 23.3 percent for top staff positions outside of staff directors (e.g., deputy staff directors, general counsels, chief counsels, and policy directors).
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Both parties fail to have adequate Black and Latina/o representation. Among the 19 Democratic Senate committees, there is one Black staff director. Of the 17 Republican Senate committees, there are zero Black staff directors.
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Both parties also fail to have adequate Black and Latina/o representation in top staff (not including staff directors). There is only one Black top staffer among the 48 top staff positions for Democrats, and one Black top staffer among 40 top staff positions for Republicans. In terms of Latina/o representation, both Democrats and Republicans have only three for each party out of 48 and 40 top staff positions.
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Whites are greatly overrepresented in both staff director positions and other top staff positions, with 81.1 percent of staff director positions filled by white Americans and 76.7 percent of other top staff positions, though white Americans are only 57.4 percent of the population.
Read the full report here.
