In 2018, Americans elected the most diverse class of lawmakers in history. There have never been more women, people of color, young people or LGBTQ lawmakers walking the halls of Congress.

And this freshman class jumped in head first, making splashes on the Hill, social media and throughout the country. But getting down to business was a bit tougher — the new members joined an extremely unpopular Congress rife with partisan gridlock.


Their first days, then weeks, were marked by the longest shutdown in U.S. history, and in between moving into their offices and finding the bathrooms, they got a crash course in rough and tumble negotiations.

From sights all over Washington, like the Capitol Reflecting Pool and the National Museum of African American History and Culture, POLITICO’s Eugene Daniels talked with them about everything from the shutdown to foreign policy and gun control.



Lucy McBath

Even if you don’t know Lucy McBath’s face or name, you probably remember the tragedy that put the Georgia Democrat in the national spotlight.

In 2012, her 17-year-old son Jordan Davis was murdered after playing loud music in a car in Florida. Her son’s killer is serving life in prison.

After Jordan’s death, McBath became an advocate, traveling the country in support of stricter gun rights, sometimes with other black women whose sons were also gunned down; a group known as the Mothers of the Movement.

But after the Parkland, Fla., shooting, McBath took the next step, running for a seat in a place she’d spent a lot of time testifying in: Congress. She became the first African-American to represent Georgia's 6th District.



Abigail Spanberger

Abigail Spanberger’s path to politics is full of secrets — literally. The Virginia Democrat spent eight years as a CIA officer, mostly focusing on counterterrorism.

The daughter of a federal law enforcement officer, Spanberger always knew she wanted a life in public service. But the Sept. 11 attacks jump-started that move. By the next year, she had applied for the CIA and had a confidential job offer.

Like many of the new women in Congress, she was pushed into politics by the 2016 elections. But unlike some of her more liberal colleagues, she considers herself a moderate through what she calls “passionate pragmatism.”



Chip Roy

Texas' Chip Roy used to stick to the background in politics, working for Texas politicians like Rick Perry and serving as chief of staff for Sen. Ted Cruz.

Those breeding grounds garnered him a reputation as a bona fide conservative who will not only fight with the opposing party but with his own. POLITICO even dubbed him “The Next Ted Cruz.”

A cancer diagnosis jump-started Roy's transition from staffer to congressman. Beating Hodgkin's lymphoma gave the Republican a renewed sense of purpose to “save the republic” for his children.



Chris Pappas

New Hampshire's Chris Pappas has always been obsessed with service. It started in his family’s Manchester, N.H., restaurant, where he went from busting suds in the back to co-owning and running the joint.

At 22, the Democrat became a state representative, and in 2018, he became the first openly gay person elected to represent New Hampshire in Congress.



Guy Reschenthaler

At the beginning of 2018, Republican Guy Reschenthaler’s district didn’t exist in its current form. After the Pennsylvania Supreme Court said the state’s district map was illegal, the 14th District in western Pennsylvania was redrawn. The district is largely made up of folks who elected Conor Lamb, who now represents the 17th District, in a huge Democratic upset in a special election in March 2018.

That flip to Reschenthaler wasn’t a surprise, especially since he seems to have been building a resume for the job his whole life. He’s a lawyer who joined the Navy Judge Advocate General's Corps and volunteered to prosecute terrorists in Iraq. He has served in the Pennsylvania state Senate.

In 2018, he became one of the youngest Republicans in Congress.



Sharice Davids

Sharice Davids’ story may not sound like the average biography of a lawmaker, but it’s a story millions of Americans know intimately.

The Kansas Democrat is the oldest of three children and was raised by a single mother in the military, and is the first in her family to attend college, starting at community college and ending at law school at Cornell University.

From there, she took on the male-dominated world of MMA fighting.

In 2018, in a midterm cycle of historic firsts, she became one of the first two Native American women elected to Congress and the first lesbian to represent her district, which she flipped from red to blue for the first time in nearly decade.