Years in Congress
Forty percent of the 117th Congress has been at the job for more than 11 years and, while most members have had a career in public service, politics, and law, scientists and aeronautics professionals have seen gains in recent years.
Building new relationships with members of Congress is an art form, especially ones who’ve been in their jobs for so long. The upside is that the majority of Congress members haven’t reached a decade yet so you have plenty of time to consolidate your relationships. Leveraging their previous occupations can also be a ticket to connecting with key lawmakers, and don’t forget the importance of building a local government affairs strategy that can help you create advocates for your policy agenda and build good faith across the aisle to advance your legislative portfolio.
Check out the full breakdown of prior occupations of the members of the 177th Congress in our report.
Marital Status
About 83 percent of Congress members are married, which is quite high compared to the average marriage rate in the U.S. of, 52 percent. They also have more children than the average U.S. family.
Knowing the marital status and family composition of key lawmakers is a helpful way to better tailor your messages and time your outreach so, for example, it doesn’t collide with regular school activities if they have children.
Get the full insights about family composition of the members of Congress in our report.
Get Access to all the Data on the Demographics of Congress
Our Deep Dive into the Demographics of the 117th Congress report leverages data from our FiscalNote and CQ platforms to bring you a comprehensive look at one of the most important government bodies for public affairs and advocacy professionals like yourself. This report includes data on where representatives went to college, where they were born, their professions prior to serving, and family composition, as well as more details on the demographics outlined in this article.
Identifying constituents of members with similar biographies lets you make stronger personal connections and build relationships with specific legislators or groups of legislators. FiscalNote’s stakeholder and people datasets as well as CQ’s immense full member bios that include, contracts, grants, and companies in their district/state, as well as even average interest groups ratings, lets you take things to the next level when building a report on the likely members most aligned with your issues.
Once you’re ready to start your outreach, FiscalNote’s legislator and staffer directory, Knowlegis, has the most up to date contact information for Congress as the best deliverability rate to the Hill, and the option of building mailing lists by issue area, party, role, caucus, voting record, committee, delegation, and so on.