Our democracy is built on a key principle: a government for the people and by the people. Despite our nation being only 60% White non-Hispanic according to the 2010 census, the 114th Congress was composed of 79.8% White senators and 94% White representatives. However, the 2018 midterm election outcomes have begun to shed these historical trends of little to no representation as diverse leaders have been elected. The future will now be paved by men and women of different backgrounds than the majority congressperson–White, male, Catholics.

On a national level, women from a variety of ethnic backgrounds will be voicing the needs of their communities in Congress. This growth in women leaders has been dubbed the “pink shift.” Congress welcomes its first two female Muslim representatives:  D. Ilhan Omar (Minnesota) and D. Rashida Tlabid (Michigan). Other underrepresented groups, such as LGBT+ persons, will see the first openly queer woman senator, bisexual D. Kyrsten Sinema (Arizona). Election results courtesy of CBS News and the New York Times.

While it seems perfectly logical to elect leaders who look like, live like, feel like their constituents, there has been a fair amount of criticism and fear in response to this shift. The heart of this fear seems to stem from a worry that these diverse politicians are only climbing to their positions because they are diverse, or in other words because politically correct culture dictates the “need” to appear diverse.

However, representatives are now of the communities they represent, and they have put in time and effort to become qualified to help find solutions to the problems they see as relevant and encroaching, because, often, they have experienced them firsthand. The role of a politician is to do their best to help those in the worst situations, but more than that, to reach all the members of their community where they are at.

In the words of former president John F. Kennedy, “Let us not seek the Republican answer or the Democratic answer, but the right answer. Let us not seek to fix the blame for the past. Let us accept our own responsibility for the future.”