Jim Costa

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Jim Costa Biography

James Manuel Costa, /ˈ k ɒ s t ə / (born April 13, 1952) is the U.S. Representative for California’s 16th congressional district , serving as a Democrat in Congress since 2013, having previously represented California’s 20th congressional district from 2005 to 2013. The district includes most of Fresno. He previously served in the California State Assembly from 1978 until 1994, and in the State Senate from 1994 until 2002. At the time of his election to the California State Legislature, he was the youngest member of the legislature at the age of 26. During his time in the California State Assembly, he served as the Majority Caucus Chair. Costa was chair of the Blue Dog Coalition and ranking member of the United States House Agriculture Subcommittee on Rural Development, Research, Biotechnology, and Foreign Agriculture.

Born in Fresno, Costa is a third-generation family farmer. His grandparents emigrated from Portugal’s Azores Islands in the early 20th century. He graduated from San Joaquin Memorial High School (1970) and from Fresno State (1974), where he was a member of Sigma Alpha Epsilon. He worked as a Special Assistant to Congressman John Krebs (1975–76), and as Administrative Assistant to Assemblyman Richard Lehman (1976–78).

Costa represented part of Fresno County in the State Legislature for 24 years, serving in the California State Assembly (1978–94) and in the California State Senate (1994-2002). In 1986, he was cited for soliciting prostitution after being arrested with a 19-year-old prostitute to whom Costa paid $50. Calling the incident “an error of judgement”, he pleaded no contest to the charge.

In 2004, Costa entered the Democratic primary for the 20th district, which was opened up by the retirement of its seven-term incumbent, Cal Dooley. Dooley endorsed his chief of staff, Lisa Quigley, as his successor, but most of the state’s Democratic Party establishment, including Senator Dianne Feinstein, endorsed Costa, who won the bruising primary and faced Republican Party state senator Roy Ashburn in November.

Costa ran unopposed for reelection in 2006. The Democrats won control of the House in that election, and Costa became chairman of the Natural Resources Committee’s Energy and Mineral Resources Subcommittee. He is a member of the House Agriculture Committee.

In April 2008, Costa wrote a piece in Capitol Weekly calling for high-speed rail in California.

Costa faced Republican Brian Whelan in the general election. After the new districts were announced, it was reported that the NRCC considered Costa vulnerable to defeat. However, had it existed in 2008, Barack Obama would have carried it with 57 percent of the vote.

Costa was reelected in 2008 with 74 percent of the vote, the highest percentage for a Democratic incumbent outside Sacramento, the Bay Area and Southern California.

Costa was reportedly a holdout vote on the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, in March 2010. He ultimately voted in favor of the legislation. To gain Costa’s vote, the House leadership reportedly promised Costa and Dennis Cardoza funding for a medical school for California’s Central Valley.

For his first four terms, Costa represented a district including most of the majority-Latino portions of Fresno and Bakersfield. However, redistricting following the 2010 census renumbered his district as the 21st district and made it slightly more Republican. In February 2012, Costa officially announced that he would run in the newly formed 16th district, a much more compact district that included most of Fresno as well as most of Merced. That district had previously been the 19th District, represented by freshman Republican Jeff Denham. However, Denham’s home had been drawn into the neighboring 10th District(formerly the 18th District), and he sought reelection there. While most of Costa’s old territory remained in the 21st, the new 16th absorbed most of the old 20th’s share of Fresno County, including his home.

In November 2011, the League of Conservation Voters ran a series of television ads in Costa’s district criticizing his environmental record. Costa was reelected in 2012 with 54% of the vote.

Costa voted on November 19, 2015, for HR 4038, legislation that would effectively halt the resettlement of refugees from Syria and Iraq to the United States.

In January 2015, Costa was one of the twenty-eight Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives who voted in favor of building the Keystone XL pipeline.

In May 2016, Costa was one of two Democrats who supported the unprecedented step of overturning a District of Columbia referendum. The measure, passed by a vast majority of D.C. voters, would allow the District to spend its own tax dollars without congressional approval.

On June 7, 2016, Costa was the sole Democratic candidate in the 2016 “top two” primary, and was ahead on June 28, with 55.9%, 50,917 votes. He was paired once again in the general election with Republican Johnny Tacherra, who finished in second place with 33.1%, 30,342 votes. In the general election, Costa prevailed with 58%, 97,473 votes, versus Tacherra’s 42%, 70,483 votes.

In December 2017, Costa introduced legislation to allow some Hmong- and Laotian-American veterans to be buried in U.S. national cemeteries. The legislation applies to Hmong and Laotian veterans who fought alongside the U.S. against North Vietnamese forces in the 1960s and 1970s. The bill, which does not allow for burials at Arlington National Cemetery, applies only to veterans who pass away on or after the bill’s enactment. The bill was enacted in March 2018 as part of the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2018.

General election for U.S. House California District 16 On November 6, 2018Incumbent Jim Costa defeated the only Republican candidate, Elizabeth Heng, in the “top two” primary, 53% to 47%. He retained his seat in a Democratic “wave” in California, 57.5%, 82,266 votes, to 42.5%, 60,693 votes in the general election, for U.S. House California District 16.

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