When the 120th U.S. Congress convenes in January 2027, the highest number of Cornellians in more than 50 years will serve in its ranks. Election Day 2026 saw two alumni newly elected to the House of Representatives, which will bring the total to eight members in the House of Representatives and one in the Senate.

According to Cornell history expert Corey Ryan Earle ’07, this many Cornellians have not served on Capitol Hill since 1975, when the 94th Congress counted nine alumni representatives and one senator (Democrat Edmund Muskie, LLB 1939, of Maine).

The two Cornellians elected to their first terms in November 2026 are Democrats who defeated Republican incumbents: Rebecca Bennett ’09 in New Jersey’s 7th District and Don Leonard, Ph.D. ’14, in Ohio’s 15th.

Bennett majored in chemical engineering in the Cornell Duffield College of Engineering, while Leonard earned a doctorate in government.

The two congressional freshmen will join six reelected representatives: Republications Clay Fuller, MPA ’06 (Georgia), Dan Meuser ’88 (Pennsylvania) and Beth Van Duyne ’95 (Texas); and Democrats Katherine Clark, J.D. ’89 (Massachusetts), Sharice Davids, J.D. ’10 (Kansas), and Melanie Stansbury, M.S. ’07 (New Mexico).

The lone Cornell grad senator is Elissa Slotkin ’98. A Democrat from Michigan, she was elected to her first six-year term 2024 after having served three terms in the House.

Joe Wilensky is senior editor for Cornellians.