Republicans vs. Democrats: Who Divorces More? A Data-Driven Analysis

Only 16.6% of ever married congressional members who served from 1995 to 2025 experienced divorce—far lower than the general U.S. divorce rate, which hovers around 40-45% [1][2]. Among them, Democrats were 41.7% more likely to divorce than Republicans.

Marriage and divorce trends among politicians are rarely discussed, yet they reveal intriguing insights into political lifestyles, generational shifts, and even partisan differences. To explore these patterns, we analyzed 1,675 U.S. congresspeople who served between 1995 and 2025, compiling data on their marriages, divorces, and children from official sources like the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress [3], Wikipedia [4], Ballotpedia [5], and legislative archives.

Methodology

To build this dataset, we:

Gathered records from bioguide.congress.gov [3] for all senators and representatives who served between 1995 and 2025, focusing on Democrats and Republicans only.
Removed duplicate names for politicians who served multiple terms, leaving 1,675 unique individuals.
Used a Python script and the Wikipedia API to scan each politician’s biography for marriage/divorce history, confirming details with sources like ballotpedia.org [5], house.gov [6], govinfo.gov [7], legistorm.com [8], and legacy.com [9] (for deceased politicians).
Manually verified anomalies, including a politician whose wife filed for divorce but passed away before it was finalized, and 13 politicians who were separated but legally still married (We classified them as “married” per census.gov [10] standards).
Conducted final manual checks to ensure accurate statistics before publication.

This process took two weeks, involving both automation and human verification to ensure accuracy.

Overall Findings

91.6% of U.S. politicians have been married at least once. (1,534 out of 1675)
16.6% of ever married politicians were divorced at least once.
Republicans were 5.5% more likely to have been married than Democrats.
Democrats were 41.7% more likely to divorce than Republicans (among ever-married politicians).
Senators were more likely to be divorced than Representatives across both parties.
8.4% of all politicians in the dataset (141 individuals) have never married.
Silent Generation politicians were 92.8% more likely to divorce than Gen X politicians.

More interesting findings:

Clay Higgins (LA, Republican) holds the record for most marriages in Congress—4 marriages and 3 divorces.
Walter Herger (CA, Republican) has the most children of any Congress member—with a staggering 9 kids.

Divorce was far less common among congresspeople than in the general U.S. population.

This could reflect career-driven caution, public image concerns, or a tendency toward more stable relationships among those who pursue long-term political careers.

Breakdown by Political Party

Overall Divorce Rate Among Ever Married Politicians: 16.6% (254 out of 1534).

Divorce Rates by Party

🔴 Republicans: 13.9% divorced at least once (117 out of 839 ever married)
🔵 Democrats: 19.7% divorced at least once (137 out of 695 ever married)

Democrats were 41.7% more likely to divorce than Republicans among ever-married politicians.

Marriage Rates by Party

🔴 Republicans: 93.8% married at least once (839 out of 894 total republican politicians)
🔵 Democrats: 88.9% married at least once (695 out of 781 total democrat politicians)

Republicans were 5.5% more likely to marry than Democrats.

Re-Marriage Rates by Party

🔴 Republicans: 11.7% married at least twice (105 out of 894 republican politicians)
🔵 Democrats: 14.8% married at least twice (116 out of 781 democrat politicians)

Average Kids per Politician

🔴 Republicans: 2.36 kids
🔵 Democrats: 1.81 kids

Key Takeaways:

Democrats were 41.7% more likely to have been divorced than Republicans.
Republicans had more children on average.

Possible explanations: Personal values, voter expectations, or differences in life choices. Republican politicians may emphasize traditional family structures more, whereas Democrats may experience greater career/lifestyle shifts that affect relationships.

Senators vs. Representatives

Senators:

🔵 Democrats: 23.2% divorce rate (19 out of 82 ever married democrat senators)
🔴 Republicans: 20.0% divorce rate (18 out of 90 ever married republican senators)

Representatives:

🔵 Democrats: 19.2% divorce rate (118 out of 613 ever married democrat representatives)
🔴 Republicans: 13.2% divorce rate (99 out of 749 ever married republican representatives)

Takeaways:

Senators were more likely to be divorced than Representatives across both parties (although a smaller dataset for Senators may have skewed the results).
Democratic Senators had the highest divorce rate (23.2%), while Republican Representatives had the lowest (13.2%).

Average Number of Marriages

Senators:

🔵 Democrats: 1.2 marriages per person (86 senators, 104 total marriages)
🔴 Republicans: 1.2 marriages per person (91 senators, 110 total marriages)

Representatives:

🔵 Democrats: 1.04 marriages per person (695 representatives, 725 total marriages)
🔴 Republicans: 1.05 marriages per person (803 representatives, 849 total marriages)

Takeaways:

Senators tend to marry more often than Representatives.
Republican Representatives had slightly more marriages than their Democrat counterparts.

Divorce Rates by Generation (Ever Married Politicians)

Silent Generation (Born 1928-1945): 21.4% divorced (75 divorced at least once out of 350 ever married politicians)
Baby Boomers (Born 1946-1964): 16.9% divorced (124 divorced at least once out of 736 ever married politicians)
Gen X (Born 1965-1980): 11.1% divorced (37 divorced at least once out of 332 ever married politicians)

Silent Generation politicians were 92.8% more likely to divorce than Gen X politicians.

Smaller dataset:

Millennials (Born 1981-1996): 12.7% divorced (9 divorced at least once out of 71 ever married politicians)

Greatest Generation (Born pre-1928): 20.0% divorced (9 divorced at least once out of 45 ever married politicians)

Note: Generations with less than 10 representatives (e.g. Gen Z) were excluded from this statistic.

Key Insights

The Silent Generation had the highest divorce rate (21.5%) among ever-married politicians.
Millennials (12.5%) and Gen X (11.1%) had significantly lower divorce rates.
Silent Generation politicians were 92.8% more likely to divorce than Gen X politicians.
Younger politicians were far less likely to be divorced than older generations, although a smaller dataset for younger generations may have skewed the results.

This suggests that modern politicians are either staying married longer or avoiding marriage altogether.

Region-Level Divorce, and Kids Insights

To improve statistical validity, we grouped states into regions to achieve larger sample sizes.

Marriage Rate by Region

Northeast: 87.9% (268 out of 305 Northeast politicians)
Midwest: 92.4% (364 out of 394 Midwest politicians)
South: 92.2% (552 out of 599 South politicians)
West: 92.8% (350 out of 377 West politicians)

Divorce Rate by Region

Northeast: 17.2% (46 out of 268 ever married Northeast politicians)
Midwest: 16.5% (60 out of 364 ever married Midwest politicians)
South: 14.7% (81 out of 552 ever married South politicians)
West: 19.1% (67 out of 350 ever married West politicians)

Average Number of Kids

Northeast: 1.85 (564 kids)
Midwest: 2.09 (823 kids)
South: 2.15 (1,289 kids)
West: 2.26 (852 kids)

Key Takeaway:

Northeast politicians are the least likely to marry, the second most likely to divorce and the least likely to have children. (Small sample sizes in some states may affect precision.)

Potential Explanations

Public Scrutiny: Marriage stability may be politically advantageous.
Career-Oriented Couples: Many politicians marry equally ambitious spouses, reducing financial instability as a divorce driver.
Electoral Considerations: Divorces might hurt political prospects, so politicians may work harder to maintain stable relationships.

Alternatively, politicians may have access to resources—such as financial stability or household staff—that reduce common stressors leading to divorce.

Want to Explore the Raw Data?

References

[1] U.S. Census Bureau. (2021). Household and Family Characteristics: 2021. Retrieved from Census.gov.
[2] Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2024). Patterns of Marriage and Divorce from Ages 15 to 55: Evidence from the NLSY79. Retrieved from BLS.gov.
[3] Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. Retrieved from Bioguide.Congress.gov.
[4] Wikipedia. Retrieved from Wikipedia.com.
[5] Ballotpedia. Retrieved from Ballotpedia.org.
[6] U.S. House of Representatives. Retrieved from House.gov.
[7] Government Publishing Office. Retrieved from GovInfo.gov.
[8] LegiStorm. Retrieved from Legistorm.com.
[9] Legacy.com. Retrieved from Legacy.com.
[10] U.S. Census Bureau. Retrieved from Census.gov.