{"id":78362,"date":"2026-11-04T15:52:05","date_gmt":"2026-11-04T20:52:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/?p=78362"},"modified":"2026-11-04T15:52:06","modified_gmt":"2026-11-04T20:52:06","slug":"alumni-2027-congress","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/alumni-2027-congress\/","title":{"rendered":"The 2027 U.S. Congress Will Seat the Most Cornellians in Half a Century"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

With the general election results in, two new representatives will bring the total number of alumni on Capitol Hill to nine<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Joe Wilensky<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Big Red history expert Corey Ryan Earle \u201907, 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).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\"Rebecca
Rebecca Bennett \u201909.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Don
Don Leonard, PhD \u201914.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The two Cornellians elected to their first terms in November 2026 are Democrats who defeated Republican incumbents: Rebecca Bennett \u201909 in New Jersey\u2019s 7th District and Don Leonard, PhD \u201914, in Ohio\u2019s 15th.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bennett majored in chemical engineering on the Hill, while Leonard earned a doctorate in government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The last time there were this many Cornellians on Capitol Hill was 1975, when the 94th Congress counted nine alumni representatives and one senator.<\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The two Congressional freshmen will join six re-elected representatives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They are: Democrats Katherine Clark, JD \u201989, (Massachusetts), Sharice Davids, JD \u201910 (Kansas), and Melanie Stansbury, MS \u201907 (New Mexico), and Republicans Clay Fuller, MPA \u201906 (Georgia), Dan Meuser \u201988 (Pennsylvania), and Beth Van Duyne \u201995 (Texas).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sole Big Red senator is Elissa Slotkin \u201998. A Democrat from Michigan, she was elected to her first six-year term 2024 after having served three terms in the House.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Top: Photo illustration by Cornell University; portraits provided<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Published November 4, 2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With the general election results in, two new representatives will bring the total number of alumni on Capitol Hill to nine<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":68,"featured_media":1333,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"alumni_hub_syml_posts":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[229],"tags":[],"cornell_year_post":[],"class_list":["post-78362","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni"],"yoast_head":"\nThe 2027 U.S. Congress Will Seat the Most Cornellians in Half a Century - Cornellians | Cornell University<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"With the general election results in, two new representatives will bring the total number of alumni on Capitol Hill to nine\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/alumni-2027-congress\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The 2027 U.S. Congress Will Seat the Most Cornellians in Half a Century - Cornellians | Cornell University\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"With the general election results in, two new representatives will bring the total number of alumni on Capitol Hill to nine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/alumni-2027-congress\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Cornellians | Cornell University\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Cornellians\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-11-04T20:52:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-11-04T20:52:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/09\/CongressCornellians-2.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1366\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"768\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Beth Saulnier\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@WeCornellians\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@WeCornellians\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Beth Saulnier\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/alumni.cornell.edu\\\/cornellians\\\/alumni-2027-congress\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/alumni.cornell.edu\\\/cornellians\\\/alumni-2027-congress\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Beth Saulnier\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/alumni.cornell.edu\\\/cornellians\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/32fea64e8c64bb984ed5809675634100\"},\"headline\":\"The 2027 U.S. Congress Will Seat the Most Cornellians in Half a Century\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-11-04T20:52:05+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-11-04T20:52:06+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/alumni.cornell.edu\\\/cornellians\\\/alumni-2027-congress\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":283,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/alumni.cornell.edu\\\/cornellians\\\/alumni-2027-congress\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/alumni.cornell.edu\\\/cornellians\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/2\\\/2021\\\/09\\\/CongressCornellians-2.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Alumni\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/alumni.cornell.edu\\\/cornellians\\\/alumni-2027-congress\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/alumni.cornell.edu\\\/cornellians\\\/alumni-2027-congress\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/alumni.cornell.edu\\\/cornellians\\\/alumni-2027-congress\\\/\",\"name\":\"The 2027 U.S. Congress Will Seat the Most Cornellians in Half a Century - Cornellians | Cornell University\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/alumni.cornell.edu\\\/cornellians\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/alumni.cornell.edu\\\/cornellians\\\/alumni-2027-congress\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/alumni.cornell.edu\\\/cornellians\\\/alumni-2027-congress\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/alumni.cornell.edu\\\/cornellians\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/2\\\/2021\\\/09\\\/CongressCornellians-2.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-11-04T20:52:05+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-11-04T20:52:06+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/alumni.cornell.edu\\\/cornellians\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/32fea64e8c64bb984ed5809675634100\"},\"description\":\"With the general election results in, two new representatives will bring the total number of alumni on Capitol Hill to nine\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/alumni.cornell.edu\\\/cornellians\\\/alumni-2027-congress\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/alumni.cornell.edu\\\/cornellians\\\/alumni-2027-congress\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/alumni.cornell.edu\\\/cornellians\\\/alumni-2027-congress\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/alumni.cornell.edu\\\/cornellians\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/2\\\/2021\\\/09\\\/CongressCornellians-2.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/alumni.cornell.edu\\\/cornellians\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/2\\\/2021\\\/09\\\/CongressCornellians-2.jpg\",\"width\":1366,\"height\":768,\"caption\":\"photo illustration showing Capitol Building with a Cornell flag at the top\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/alumni.cornell.edu\\\/cornellians\\\/alumni-2027-congress\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/alumni.cornell.edu\\\/cornellians\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The 2027 U.S. Congress Will Seat the Most Cornellians in Half a Century\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/alumni.cornell.edu\\\/cornellians\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/alumni.cornell.edu\\\/cornellians\\\/\",\"name\":\"Cornellians | Cornell University\",\"description\":\"Cornell's alumni publication\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/alumni.cornell.edu\\\/cornellians\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/alumni.cornell.edu\\\/cornellians\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/32fea64e8c64bb984ed5809675634100\",\"name\":\"Beth Saulnier\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/321760a8edb5153d2c562bbadd61cc5ebb987bda75fb59074266c35cc35beae1?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/321760a8edb5153d2c562bbadd61cc5ebb987bda75fb59074266c35cc35beae1?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/321760a8edb5153d2c562bbadd61cc5ebb987bda75fb59074266c35cc35beae1?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Beth Saulnier\"},\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/alumni.cornell.edu\\\/cornellians\\\/author\\\/ess8\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The 2027 U.S. Congress Will Seat the Most Cornellians in Half a Century - Cornellians | Cornell University","description":"With the general election results in, two new representatives will bring the total number of alumni on Capitol Hill to nine","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/alumni-2027-congress\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The 2027 U.S. Congress Will Seat the Most Cornellians in Half a Century - Cornellians | Cornell University","og_description":"With the general election results in, two new representatives will bring the total number of alumni on Capitol Hill to nine","og_url":"https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/alumni-2027-congress\/","og_site_name":"Cornellians | Cornell University","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Cornellians","article_published_time":"2026-11-04T20:52:05+00:00","article_modified_time":"2026-11-04T20:52:06+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1366,"height":768,"url":"https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/09\/CongressCornellians-2.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Beth Saulnier","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@WeCornellians","twitter_site":"@WeCornellians","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Beth Saulnier","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/alumni-2027-congress\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/alumni-2027-congress\/"},"author":{"name":"Beth Saulnier","@id":"https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/#\/schema\/person\/32fea64e8c64bb984ed5809675634100"},"headline":"The 2027 U.S. Congress Will Seat the Most Cornellians in Half a Century","datePublished":"2026-11-04T20:52:05+00:00","dateModified":"2026-11-04T20:52:06+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/alumni-2027-congress\/"},"wordCount":283,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/alumni-2027-congress\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/09\/CongressCornellians-2.jpg","articleSection":["Alumni"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/alumni-2027-congress\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/alumni-2027-congress\/","url":"https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/alumni-2027-congress\/","name":"The 2027 U.S. Congress Will Seat the Most Cornellians in Half a Century - Cornellians | Cornell University","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/alumni-2027-congress\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/alumni-2027-congress\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/09\/CongressCornellians-2.jpg","datePublished":"2026-11-04T20:52:05+00:00","dateModified":"2026-11-04T20:52:06+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/#\/schema\/person\/32fea64e8c64bb984ed5809675634100"},"description":"With the general election results in, two new representatives will bring the total number of alumni on Capitol Hill to nine","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/alumni-2027-congress\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/alumni-2027-congress\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/alumni-2027-congress\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/09\/CongressCornellians-2.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/09\/CongressCornellians-2.jpg","width":1366,"height":768,"caption":"photo illustration showing Capitol Building with a Cornell flag at the top"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/alumni-2027-congress\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The 2027 U.S. Congress Will Seat the Most Cornellians in Half a Century"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/#website","url":"https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/","name":"Cornellians | Cornell University","description":"Cornell's alumni publication","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/#\/schema\/person\/32fea64e8c64bb984ed5809675634100","name":"Beth Saulnier","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/321760a8edb5153d2c562bbadd61cc5ebb987bda75fb59074266c35cc35beae1?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/321760a8edb5153d2c562bbadd61cc5ebb987bda75fb59074266c35cc35beae1?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/321760a8edb5153d2c562bbadd61cc5ebb987bda75fb59074266c35cc35beae1?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Beth Saulnier"},"url":"https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/author\/ess8\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78362","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/68"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78362"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78362\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":78386,"href":"https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78362\/revisions\/78386"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1333"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78362"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78362"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78362"},{"taxonomy":"cornell_year_post","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cornell_year_post?post=78362"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}