Here Come The Freshmen – Congress’ Newest Class

WASHINGTON (AP) — Congress' approval rating hovers around 15 percent, but there's one group of people excited about the institution: newly elected lawmakers.

The House of Representatives will welcome 58 freshmen this coming week, including 43 Republicans and 15 Democrats, pushing the GOP majority to 246 members, the most since the Great Depression. In the Senate, 13 new lawmakers will be sworn in, all but one of them Republican, flipping control of the chamber to the GOP with a 54-vote majority.

The incoming classes will bring new gender and racial diversity to Capitol Hill, with 104 women in the House and Senate and close to 100 black, Hispanic and Asian lawmakers.The newcomers include the youngest woman elected to Congress, 30-year-old Elise Stefanik of New York, and the first black Republican woman, Mia Love of Utah.

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