When Georgia state lawmakers take office this week, they will belong to a slightly more diverse Legislature than the last two-year session which began in 2023.
And last term was likely the most racially and ethnically diverse on record.
With just 22 new members and 214 returning lawmakers, the changes this time around are incremental, and still fall short of proportionately representing Georgians across the state.
There will be 91 nonwhite legislators this year, five more than at the start of the last session. Black legislators will compose roughly 30% of the General Assembly with 74 members. An additional two members identify as Afro-Latino.
There will be five Hispanic members, eight members of the Asian American and Pacific Islander community, one member who is Asian and Hispanic and one Arab member, according to an Atlanta Journal-Constitution analysis of the 2025 Legislature.
The number of white lawmakers will shrink from 150 at the start of the last biennium to 145 this year, slightly decreasing their majority from 64% to 61%.
Senate Democratic Leader Harold Jones of Augusta said it’s important to have a diverse Legislature that represents the many communities that make up Georgia.
Jones, who is Black, said having viewpoints from a diverse group of Georgians makes lawmaking better.
“It brings different things to the table, to where you may not have thought about (things) that way,” he said.
While the growing diversity of the Legislature is slow-moving from one session to the next, it adds up over time. Over a decade ago in 2012, there were 65 nonwhite members in the Legislature. That number has increased 40% over 15 years.
While the percentage of Black lawmakers roughly mirrors the Black population of the state, the Legislature still lags the rest of the state in Hispanic, Asian American and Pacific Islander, and mixed-race demographics.
Statewide, 11% of residents identify as Hispanic or Latino, and 4.5% are Asian, according to the Census’ latest American Community Survey. In the current Legislature, these groups combined make up about 7% of lawmakers.
Women also are underrepresented. There are 81 women lawmakers in the Legislature, the same as two years ago. They account for 34% of lawmakers, but 51% of Georgians across the state are women.
Most of the diversity comes from Democratic members, and that hasn’t changed much since the last session.
While 83% of Democratic members are not white, just 4% of Republican members aren’t. Dallas resident state Sen. Jason Anavitarte, who is of Puerto Rican descent, is the lone nonwhite Republican member in the Senate. In the House, state Rep. Steven Sainz of St. Marys, state Rep. Rey Martinez of Loganville, state Rep. Soo Hong of Lawrenceville and state Rep. Charlice Byrd of Woodstock are the only nonwhite Republicans.
In 2023, the House began with 19 Republican women. This year there will be 20, which House Speaker Pro Tem Jan Jones, the highest-ranking woman in the Legislature, said she believes is a record.
The Senate lost half its representation of Republican women, dropping from two in 2023 to one this year. State Sen. Kay Kirkpatrick of Marietta is the party’s lone woman in the chamber.
Democrats have a total of 60 female lawmakers serving this year in both chambers.
State Sen. Sally Harrell, an Atlanta Democrat who served in the House in the 1990s before returning to the Legislature in 2019, said her two stints in office feel like two completely different worlds.
“When I served in the House, I was serving with the old world — the more male-driven agricultural leadership, which is (almost) completely gone now,” she said.
Harrell, who is the outgoing co-chair of the Legislature’s Women’s Caucus, said while there have been increases in diversity across the board, it’s nearly all on the Democratic side — and Democrats no longer control the Legislature as they did in the ‘90s.
Before Republicans took control of the Legislature, the Legislative Black Caucus had more power. Former state Rep. Calvin Smyre, a Democrat from Columbus who is Black, served as the House Rules Chairman, seen as one of the most powerful chairmanships in the Legislature because the members of that committee control what bills make it to the floor for debate.
“The diversity is not represented in the power of the Republican Party,” she said. “The diversity is in the Democratic Party. So even though there’s increased diversity, there’s less power in that diversity.”
Sainz, who is of Costa Rican and Cuban descent, said though it’s important to have a variety of perspectives in the Legislature, he doesn’t want voters to support him because he’s Hispanic. He wants voter support because he’s the best person for the job.
“Georgia is an incredibly diverse state (and) all perspectives in our diverse state, I think, are in parallel,” he said. “It doesn’t surprise me that we have multiple members on both sides of the aisle that represent not only their district, which is always my priority, but you need (voices from) communities throughout Georgia.”
