5 Minnesota Freshmen Representatives Sworn In At Nation's Capitol
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- Minnesota is officially sending five new members to the U.S. Congress Thursday, as they will be sworn in at the U.S. Capitol in Washington D.C.
Angie Craig, Dean Phillips, and Ilhan Omar are the freshmen Democratic representatives, and Pete Stauber and Jim Hagedorn are the new Republican members of Congress.
The Democrats are taking majority control of the U.S. House of Representatives.
Returning to office are Democrat Betty McCollum and Republicans Tom Emmer and Collin Peterson. Peterson will have a particularly important job, acting as the Chair of the House Agriculture Committee.
The first order of business for the U.S. House will be the expected swearing-in of Nancy Pelosi as Speaker of the House. There are 235 democrats in this congressional class to 199 Republicans.
Representative Ilhan Omar has been getting much attention for being one of the first two Muslim women elected to Congress and the first Somali-American. Also, Angie Craig is set to become the first openly gay person elected to Congress from Minnesota.
Some of the new members of Congress have been posting photos of their transition to Washington.
Dean Phillips posted photos of his daughters taking him to the airport to head to DC in late December:
Ilhan Omar and her father, who came through D.C. 23 years ago as refugees, posted this:
And Pete Satuber posted this photo after flipping his district in northeast Minnesota:
