WASHINGTON — Sen.-elect Troy Jackson quickly learned just how much attention is lavished on new lawmakers when he arrived at the Capitol on Nov. 10.
The soon-to-be freshman Maine Democrat rode the electric train from the Russell Senate Office Building with a group of well-wishers and took pictures with them at the Capitol platform. Then there were more requests for pictures. Next, a family of tourists approached him to congratulate him on beating five-term GOP Sen. Susan Collins.
"Awesome," Jackson said, as the cameras snapped. "At this point, everything is going great, so I’m very excited."
A week after winning their elections, more than 100 new lawmakers have traded the campaign trail for the halls of Congress.
They’re attending panels, meeting
new colleagues and learning the ins and outs of how to set up a congressional office. They’re making new friends, figuring out where they’ll live when they’re in Washington, DC, and how they’ll split their time between Washington and their districts.
And sometimes they’re just figuring out where to go next – literally and figuratively.
Cait Conley, an Army veteran who ousted Republican Rep. Mike Lawler of New York, appeared to get lost while talking to a USA TODAY reporter in a House office building. After comparing her freshman orientation experience to the first week of school, her voice trailed off.
"Sorry, I'm actually trying to figure out how to get out of here," she said, before resolving to "follow the exit signs."
Making friends
More than 100 newly elected members of Congress descended on the Capitol the week after the election for freshman orientation. The bulk of those new members are Democrats, who flipped 43 House seats and seven GOP-held Senate seats.
New friendships are already forming.
Jackson, a former state lawmaker and logger, said he was beginning to forge bonds with new colleagues, including Sens.-elect James Talarico of Texas and Sherrod Brown of Ohio. Brown may need the orientation least of all — he represented Ohio in the Senate for 18 years and is returning two years after losing his 2024 reelection.
"Heard a lot about him. Very excited. Another labor-oriented guy," Jackson said of Brown.
Sen.-elect Juliana Stratton, D–Illinois, noted that she and Sen.-elect Peggy Flanagan, D–Minnesota, both began serving as lieutenant governors of their respective states in 2019 before being elected to the U.S. Senate this month.
"It's great to have her here," Stratton said. "The entire class are not just brilliant and really just passionate about the issues in their communities, but they're also really good people."
Showing up and doing their homework
Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-Louisiana, who lost his May primary to Sen.-elect Julia Letlow, said he always passes along the same advice to new lawmakers: get the best office you can. But the best advice he received as a new member was from former Louisiana Republican Rep. Jim McCrery.
"Show up, do your homework, and keep your word," Cassidy said. "If you do that, you’ll have a good legislative career."
For some new members, the Capitol is a familiar place. Before he was elected to be Washington, DC's non-voting delegate to Congress, Robert White served as legislative counsel for his predecessor, outgoing Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton. He said he's still listening for the nuggets of information he may not know.
"There's the surreal part where you walk up the Capitol steps into the House chamber, and I mean, it's amazing," White told USA TODAY. "Then there is the sort of new kid orientation that's like school. This is how you hire staff. This is how you do your schedule. This is your budget. These are the ethics rules."
Rep.-elect Richard Ojeda, a North Carolina Democrat who defeated incumbent GOP Rep. Richard Hudson, described the first few days as "drinking from a fire hose."
"I am in awe of all of this," Ojeda told USA TODAY. "This is a position that's way bigger than I am, and that's my focus, is always making sure that I'm going to place the people of my district first."
Jasmine Clark, a Georgia state representative who won the state’s 13th Congressional District, compared running a congressional office to operating a business. She and her peers are also figuring out the logistics of commuting back and forth between their districts and the Capitol.
"It just becomes a work-life-family balance that I am looking forward to at least trying to figure out," she told USA TODAY. "But I do know there's probably going to be a lot of figuring out happening over the next few months."
Figuring out where to stay while in Washington is high on new members' lists of priorities. Jackson said he’s staying in a hotel with plans to look at places. Sen.-elect Abdul El-Sayed, a Michigan Democrat, said "we’re working on it." Sen.-elect Annie Andrews, a South Carolina Democrat, said that's "tomorrow's project."
Nevada Democrat Teresa Benitez-Thompson, a mother of four who won a U.S. House seat that includes her home in Reno, said she plans to be a supercommuter.
"I'll be returning home to touch soil as much as I can," she said. "I would say grass, but we don't grow a lot of grass."
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 'Drinking from a fire hose': Freshmen lawmakers descend on Washington
