Name: Demographics in the California Legislature
Creator: california-state-library
License: Open Data Commons Attribution License

Open Data Commons Attribution License

demographics-in-the-california-legislature

Website: https://www.library.ca.gov/

The California State Library empowers the people of the nation's most diverse and populous state by: Providing credible information services to all Californians, especially those in state government and the Legislature, libraries, academia, and persons with disabilities; Leading and establishing partnerships with California libraries through funding, program development, and support; Preserving and providing access to California’s unique history to enrich the lives of current and future generations.

california-state-library

California State Library

Dictionary: 
AA = African American 
API = Asian Pacific Islander
D = Democratic Party
I = A political party other than Democratic or Republican or no political party
Hispanic = Hispanic/Latino/Latina
Multi = Multiple Races
NA = Native American
R = Republican Party
White = White Alone

Column Headings: 
Term = Each two year term beginning with 1919-20 through 2025-26
Start/End = Start or End; indicates whether the member served at the start or end of the term. A member who served the entire term will have an entry for both start and end. This indicates changes due to special elections.
House = California State Senate or California State Assembly
District = Number reflects the district number. For example: For Brian Dahle, "1" represents "District 1" It is a senate district because the house column for Brian Dahle is "Senate" 
First = First Name
Last = Last Name
Race_Ethnicity = AA, API, Latino, Multi, NA, White
Gender = Male, Female
Party = D, R, I

Notes: 
"White" indicates white alone, while "Multi" indicates members with multiple racial/ethnic backgrounds other than white.

Public Access Level	Public
Rights	No restrictions on public use; see attribution request in license
Program Contact Name	Devin Lavelle
Program Contact Email	crb@library.ca.gov
Author	California Research Bureau
Homepage URL	https://www.library.ca.gov/crb/
Frequency	Irregular
Last Updated	September 29, 2026 at 10:22 PM (UTC+00:00)
Created	November 4, 2020 at 9:56 PM (UTC+00:00)
Granularity	N/A
Additional Information	Research Process: The Research Bureau used data that was compiled by us previously (John Cornelison), the National Conference of State Legislatures and publicly available data such as biographies, campaign literature and membership in caucuses. We are very appreciative of the time Alex Vassar spent helping us identify the election of various women legislators.
Spatial coverage	State
License	Open Data Commons Attribution License
Tags	#demographics#legislature

Demographics in the California Legislature

Data and Resources

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