Alumni The 2027 U.S. Congress Will Seat the Most Cornellians in Half a Century Stories You May Like ‘I Hadn’t Come for the Oddness of the Art World’ ‘Unprecedented Freedom to Explore, Inside and Beyond Your Classrooms’ In this Spooky Season, a Look Back at Rulloff—Ithaca’s Infamous Rogue With the general election results in, two new representatives will bring the total number of alumni on Capitol Hill to nine By Joe Wilensky When the 120th U.S. Congress convenes in January 2027, it will have the highest number of Cornellians serving in its ranks in more than 50 years. Election Day 2026 saw two alumni newly elected to the House of Representatives, which will bring the Big Red total to eight members in the House and one in the Senate. According to Big Red history expert Corey Ryan Earle ’07, the last time there were this many Cornellians on Capitol Hill was 1975, when the 94th Congress counted nine alumni representatives and one senator (Democrat Edmund Muskie, LLB 1939, of Maine). Rebecca Bennett ’09. Don Leonard, PhD ’14. The two Cornellians elected to their first terms in November 2026 are Democrats who defeated Republican incumbents: Rebecca Bennett ’09 in New Jersey’s 7th District and Don Leonard, PhD ’14, in Ohio’s 15th. Bennett majored in chemical engineering on the Hill, while Leonard earned a doctorate in government. Stories You May Like ‘I Hadn’t Come for the Oddness of the Art World’ ‘Unprecedented Freedom to Explore, Inside and Beyond Your Classrooms’ The last time there were this many Cornellians on Capitol Hill was 1975, when the 94th Congress counted nine alumni representatives and one senator. The two Congressional freshmen will join six re-elected representatives. They are: Democrats Katherine Clark, JD ’89, (Massachusetts), Sharice Davids, JD ’10 (Kansas), and Melanie Stansbury, MS ’07 (New Mexico), and Republicans Clay Fuller, MPA ’06 (Georgia), Dan Meuser ’88 (Pennsylvania), and Beth Van Duyne ’95 (Texas). The sole Big Red senator is Elissa Slotkin ’98. A Democrat from Michigan, she was elected to her first six-year term 2024 after having served three terms in the House. Top: Photo illustration by Cornell University; portraits provided. Published November 4, 2026 Leave a Comment Cancel replyOnce your comment is approved, your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *Comment * Name * Class Year Email * Save my name, email, and class year in this browser for the next time I comment. Δ Other stories You may like Quizzes & Puzzles A Trivia Tribute to Coach Schafer Bear Hugs Alum’s Nonprofit Unites Advocates in the Battle Against Sex Trafficking Chime In How Surviving a Brain Tumor Made Me Rethink My Drive to Achieve