TWENTY LUTHERANS IN NEW CONGRESS
There are 20 Lutherans in the 107th Congress of the United States, according to the Lutheran Office for Governmental Affairs (LOGA), Washington, D.C., the federal public policy advocacy office of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA).
Eight of the 16 Lutherans in the U.S. House are Republicans; eight are Democrats. Three of the four Lutherans in the U.S. Senate are Democrats; one is a Republican.
There were 22 Lutherans in the 106th Congress. Two Lutherans — U.S. Senator Rod Grams (R-Minn.) and U.S. Representative David Minge (D-Minn. 2nd) — failed to win re-election. After a recount, the Minnesota Secretary of State reported that Minge had lost re-election by 155 of the 293,747 votes cast in that district. Minge conceded December 12, stopping a hand recount of the ballots.
The four Lutherans in the U.S. Senate are Conrad Burns (R-Mont.), Byron L. Dorgan (D-N.D.), Ernest F. “Fritz” Hollings (D-S.C.) and Tim Johnson (D-S.D.).
The 16 Lutherans in the U.S. House of Representatives are Douglas K. Bereuter (R-Neb. 1st), Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio 13th), Lois Capps (D-Calif. 22nd), Norman D. Dicks (D-Wash. 6th), Darlene Hooley (D-Ore. 5th), Ron Kind (D-Wis. 3rd), Tom Latham (R-Iowa 5th), Jim Nussle (R-Iowa 2nd), Doug Ose (R-Calif. 3rd), Michael Oxley (R-Ohio 4th), Collin C. Peterson (D-Minn. 7th), Thomas E. Petri (R-Wis. 6th), Martin Olav Sabo (D-Minn. 5th), John M. Shimkus (R-Ill. 20th), Floyd D. Spence (R-S.C. 2nd) and Charles W. Stenholm (D-Texas 17th).
All are members of the ELCA, except Senator Burns and Representatives Bereuter and Shimkus who are LCMS.
