More than 100 U.S. political leaders have ancestors who were slaveholders
- At least 100 members of the last sitting Congress are direct descendants of ancestors who enslaved Black people, representing at least 8% of Democrats in Congress and 28% of Republicans.
- The group includes Republican senators Mitch McConnell, Lindsey Graham, Tom Cotton and James Lankford, and Democrats Elizabeth Warren, Tammy Duckworth, Jeanne Shaheen and Maggie Hassan.
- President Joe Biden and every living former U.S. president except Donald Trump are direct descendants of slaveholders: Jimmy Carter, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama.
- Governors of 11 of the 50 U.S. states in 2022 were descendants of slaveholders, as were two U.S. Supreme Court justices.
- The Congressional slaveholding ancestors were among the richest in America before the Civil War; three-quarters were among the richest 10%.
- In researching America’s political elite, Reuters found names of more than 700 people enslaved by ancestors of the leaders.
- Some 23% of respondents to a new Reuters/Ipsos poll said knowing that a candidate’s ancestors enslaved people would make them less likely to vote for that candidate, and white respondents who said they’re aware of having a slaveholding ancestor were more likely than other white people to support paying reparations for slavery.
Edited by Blake Morrison
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