Jim Costa

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.

The 20th district is a heavily Democratic, 63% Latino-majority district; it gave Al Gore his highest vote total outside the state's two large conurbations (Sacramento and the San Francisco Bay Area in the north and Los Angeles and San Diego to the south). Nonetheless, the Republicans spent a substantial amount of money on the race. Ashburn's campaign made plays on Costa's name, "Costa's going to cost ya," and linked him to former Governor Gray Davis, calling them "two taxing twins". Costa won the election with 54% of the vote to Ashburn's 46%. Ashburn kept the margin within single digits by winning heavily Republican Kings County.

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.

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 challenged for reelection by Republican nominee Andy Vidak. In his closest race yet, the race was officially called for Costa nearly three weeks after election day,[3] with the unofficial final tally standing at 45,806 votes (51.8%) for Costa and 42,773 votes (48.2%) for Vidak.

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.[4] 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.

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.[5] However, had it existed in 2008, Barack Obama would have carried it with 57 percent of the vote.[6]

In November 2011, the League of Conservation Voters ran a series of television ads in Costa's district criticizing his environmental record.[7] Costa was reelected in 2012 with 54% of the vote.[8]

Costa faced an unexpectedly close race against Republican Johnny Tacherra, a dairyman from rural Fresno County. On election night, Tacherra led by 736 votes, a margin that grew to 1,772 votes a few days later. However, Tacherra's lead narrowed as counting continued, and Costa ultimately defeated him by 1,319 votes.[9] While Tacherra carried the district's portions of Merced and Madera counties, Costa defeated him in Fresno County by 9,600 votes.[10]

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.[11] In the general election, Costa prevailed with 58%, 97,473 votes, versus Tacherra's 42%, 70,483 votes.[12]

On November 6, 2018, incumbent 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 16th congressional district.[13]

• Committee on Agriculture
  • Subcommittee on Conservation, Energy, and Forestry
  • Subcommittee on Rural Development, Research, Biotechnology, and Foreign Agriculture
• Committee on Natural Resources
  • Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources
  • Subcommittee on Water and Power

• American Sikh Congressional Caucus
• Beef Caucus Specialty
• Blue Dog Coalition[14]
• Congressional Organ Donation Caucus (Co-Founder)
• Congressional Soils Caucus
• Congressional Victims' Rights Caucus (Co-Founder and Co-Chair)
• Congressional Water Caucus (Co-Founder)
• United States Congressional International Conservation Caucus[15]
• Methamphetamine Caucus
• New Democrat Coalition[16]
• Congressional Hispanic Caucus[17]
• Veterinary Medicine Caucus[18]

Costa was one of the sponsors for the bipartisan Agricultural Certainty for Reporting Emissions (ACRE) Act. The act would strip provisions from Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA), which was responsible for ensuring cleanup of industrial toxic waste dumps, oil spills, and chemical tank explosions environmental regulations on farm land.[19] If enacted, this act would reduce transparency by protecting livestock farmers from changes to waste storage and disposal methods. Another provision would protect farmers from strict water laws, regulated under the Clean Water Act.[20]

In May 2016, Costa was one of two Democrats who supported the unprecedented step of overturning a District of Columbia referendum.[21] The measure, passed by a vast majority of D.C. voters, would allow the District to spend its own tax dollars without congressional approval.[21]

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.[22] To gain Costa's vote, the House leadership reportedly promised Costa and Dennis Cardoza funding for a medical school for California's Central Valley.[23]

Costa has been an advocate of creating a high-speed rail system that would go up and down California as well as across the nation at speeds of 225 miles-per-hour. He has introduced many bills supporting these rails; so far, none have passed. Miller has compared rail projects to Eisenhower's highway expansion and pleaded to Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and President Obama for help in with this project.[24]

In April 2008, Costa wrote a piece in Capitol Weekly calling for high-speed rail in California.[25]

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.[26]

Costa was one of five house Democrats who voted for the US to continue selling arms to Saudi Arabia and to support the Saudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen.[27]

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.[28]

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.[29]

Coasta accused Turkey, a NATO member, of inciting the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh, saying thet "Azerbaijan has continued to fuel this fire by failing to recognize the sovereignty of the Republic of Artsakh, while Turkey has helped enable this aggression."[30] On October 1, 2020, he co-signed a letter to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, which condemned Azerbaijan’s offensive operations against the Armenian-populated Republic of Artsakh, denounced Turkey’s role in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and called for an immediate cease-fire.[31]