As the proportion of white Texans continues to decline, the legislature remains predominantly white and male.

The Texas Legislature has reached a long-awaited milestone in its history: in 177 years, enough female legislators have been elected to fill all 181 seats in one legislative session, and then several.

The legislature, convened on Tuesday for the 2023 session, is still predominantly white and male. Seventy percent of deputies are men. At least 54% of legislators are white, and nearly half are white men. But the new Legislature also has the most female legislators in at least the last five sessions.

Although the number of women who have served over the years is still well below the 5,000 men, the addition of about a dozen new female legislators has increased the all-time number of women elected to the state hall of government to 192, up from 179 in beginning. last legislative session two years ago.

This year, women legislators took 54 of the 181 seats in the Capitol. There are twice as many Democratic women legislators as Republicans. However, unlike previous legislative sessions, there are many more female Republicans in the House of Representatives than lawmakers named “John”.

The legislature is still far less diverse than Texas as a whole.

While the proportion of white Texans continues to decline, the racial and ethnic composition of the Legislature still does not match the demographics of the state.

If the composition of the Legislature matched the demographics of the state, the number of white Hispanic and non-Hispanic legislators would be roughly equal. Instead, there are still more than twice as many white legislators as Hispanic legislators. Hispanic Texans make up 40% of the population but hold only 25% of seats in the Legislative Assembly.

The lack of diversity is particularly acute among Republicans, who hold the vast majority of seats in the legislature. The Republican Party did make some headway in the last election. The number of Republicans of color increased from five at the start of the 2021 legislative session to 11 this year.

The return of State Senator Pete Flores to the Capitol means that not all Republicans in the Senate will be white in this legislative session. Flores became the first Hispanic Republican senator since winning the 2018 special election. He lost re-election but returned, thanks in part to redistricting.

While the Democrats are heavily outnumbered on a partisan basis, the Democrats have a more diverse roster of lawmakers. Roughly half of the Democrats in the Legislature are Hispanic, and there are more black Democrats than whites.

Age breakdown in the Texas Legislature

The minimum age to serve in the Legislature is 21, but in general the Legislature has a tendency to age. In fact, the average age of state legislators has risen over the last few legislative sessions.

The average age of a deputy this year is almost 55 years. Senators tend to be older than representatives of the House of Representatives, although the House includes younger members such as Republicans Mace Middleton, 41, and Morgan LaMantia, 36, who will be the youngest senator.

Democratic Rep. Senfronia Thompson, the oldest woman and black woman in Legislative Assembly history, is the oldest member at 84. State Rep. Caroline Harris, a first-year Republican MP, is the youngest at 29.

The age group most represented in the Capitol is between 50 and 64 years old.

Disintegration of education in the State Legislature

The legislature is a workplace where more than a third of the members are lawyers, so most legislators have advanced degrees. Only 33% of adult Texans have a bachelor’s degree or higher.

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