2023 will see record number of Hispanic Americans in Congress and state legislatures

Currently, there are only 38 Hispanic Americans in Congress, 28 of them Democrats and 10 Republicans, according to the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials Educational Fund. But after the new year, that number will increase to 45 Hispanic members of the largest branch of the federal government with 34 Democrats and 11 Republicans, a record number of Hispanics in Congress, according to NALEO. 

The new numbers mark the first time Hispanic legislators will make up over 10% of the 435-member House of Representatives. 

To date, there are nine new Democratic members and four new Republicans. Many of the new members are the first Latinos elected to Congress from their districts and states. Two California races with Hispanic American candidates are still counting.

Hispanic Americans also made an impact in state legislatures nationwide.

Before the 2022 midterm elections there were only 451 Hispanic state legislators in office and it appears there will be more than 500 Latino legislators across the country.

Before the election 87% of the Hispanic state legislators were Democrats and only 13% were Republicans, but that number increased for Republicans.

So far, 79 new Latinos have won state races in this election—64 Democrats and 15 Republicans, almost doubling twice the number Latino Republicans winning this year from 13% to almost 25%, according to tabulations from the National Hispanic Caucus of State Legislators.

Latino voters also made a difference. While there was noticeable impact across the country on both sides of the aisle, there was a strong Hispanic red tsunami for Republicans in Florida.

Gov. Ron DeSantis lost the Latino vote in 2018 by about 10 points, but captures that vote by 58% in this election with 68% of the votes coming from the Cuban the community, 56% from Puerto Ricans and 53% of all other Latinos combined.

According to CNN, support for Democrats from Latino men was down from 63% to 55%. Democrats had a previous 19 point lead with Latina women, which dropped to only 8 points, an 11 point decline.

New Republican members of Congress include Anna Paulina Luna, Florida 13th; Lori Chavez-DeRemer, Oregon 3rd Juan Ciscomani, Arizona 6th Congressional; and Monica De La Cruz, Texas 13.

New Democratic members so far are Robert Garcia California 42; Gabe Vasquez, New Mexico 2nd; Andrea Salinas, Oregon 6th Congressional District; Maxwell Alejandro Frost,  Florida 10th; Yadira Caraveo, Colorado 8th; Greg Casar, Texas 35th; Delia Ramirez, Illinois 3rd; Rob Menendez Jr., New Jersey 8th; and Gluesenkamp Perez, Washington 3rd.

NALEO's total count may be distinctive from the U.S. House of Representatives tally and those of other organizations because of whether candidates are identified as Latino or Hispanic. Some groups include members of Portuguese descent in their totals, but NALEO uses the federal definition of Hispanics, defined as “individuals whose origin is Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban, Central or South American, or any other Spanish-speaking country.”