RightDataUSA


Jim Costa

[Congressional biography]

Born: April 13, 1952 in Fresno, CA

Education:

  • Cal State-Fresno, B.S., 1974

Career:

  • Consultant, 2002-2004

Elected Office:

  • CA Assembly, 1978-1994
  • CA Senate, 1994-2002


Election Results for Jim Costa


Click on the Year to see the results of that election.

YearAgeStatePartyOfficeDistrictStagePosVotes%
2004 52 CA D U.S. House District 20 Primary 1 24,338 73.2%
2004 52 CA D U.S. House District 20 General 1 61,005 53.4%
2006 54 CA D U.S. House District 20 Primary 1 24,356 100.0%
2006 54 CA D U.S. House District 20 General 1 61,120 100.0%
2008 56 CA D U.S. House District 20 Primary 1 22,042 100.0%
2008 56 CA D U.S. House District 20 General 1 93,023 74.3%
2010 58 CA D U.S. House District 20 Primary 1 19,599 79.3%
2010 58 CA D U.S. House District 20 General 1 46,247 51.7%
2012 60 CA D U.S. House District 16 Open Primary 1 25,355 42.7%
2012 60 CA D U.S. House District 16 General 1 84,649 57.4%
2014 62 CA D U.S. House District 16 Open Primary 1 25,586 44.3%
2014 62 CA D U.S. House District 16 General 1 46,277 50.7%
2016 64 CA D U.S. House District 16 Open Primary 1 52,822 55.9%
2016 64 CA D U.S. House District 16 General 1 97,473 58.0%
2018 66 CA D U.S. House District 16 Open Primary 1 39,527 53.0%
2018 66 CA D U.S. House District 16 General 1 82,266 57.5%
2020 68 CA D U.S. House District 16 Open Primary 1 41,228 37.5%
2020 68 CA D U.S. House District 16 General 1 128,690 59.4%
2022 70 CA D U.S. House District 21 Open Primary 1 33,850 47.0%
2022 70 CA D U.S. House District 21 General 1 68,074 54.2%
2024 72 CA D U.S. House District 21 Open Primary 1 42,697 53.0%
2024 72 CA D U.S. House District 21 General 1 98,585 52.4%


Age: Age as of July 1 of the year pertaining to this election.



Ideology Data for Jim Costa


Click on the number in the 'Conserv.' column to see all of the key votes for that year.

YearAgeBodyConservative
Coalition		Party UnityPresidential
Support		Vote %LiberalConserv.
P
2005 53 House 77 21 R 39 59 97 83 32
2006 54 House 71 23 R 47 53 92 74 56
2007 55 House 90 8 R 7 92 97 90 4
2008 56 House 87 5 R 27 70 93 84 9
2009 57 House 88 9 D 87 7 96 85 12
2010 58 House 86 12 D 88 10 95 70 8
2011 59 House 53 43 D 66 31 95 58 21
2012 60 House 61 34 D 51 39 95 42 29
2013 61 House 68 29 D 70 27 94 53 9
2014 62 House 67 30 D 59 36 96 40 16
2015 63 House 70 27 D 62 35 97 47 8
2016 64 House 66 30 D 53 40 95 55 4
2017 65 House 64 17 R 25 64 83 67 5
2018 66 House 70 22 R 63 33 87 50 27
2019 67 House 95 4 R 6 94 98 80 4
2020 68 House 96 3 R 6 94 97 85 4
2021 69 House 95 2 D 100 0 96 79 10
2022 70 House 94 4 D 100 0 99 3
2023 71 House 83 13 D 93 8
2024 72 House 79 16 D 94 8
Lifetime conservative rating:   13%


Age: Age as of July 1 of the year pertaining to this row.


Conservative Coalition: According to the publication "Congressional Quarterly" (CQ), this is an alliance of Republicans and Southern Democrats (from back when Southern Democrats tended to be conservative or at least moderate) against Northern Democrats in Congress.

This concept had significant meaning perhaps through the 1980's. These statistics stopped being computed after 2000 because conservative Democrats no longer existed except in very rare cases. The number under the green check is the percentage of time this Representative or Senator voted with the coalition; the number under the red X is the percentage of the time he opposed the coalition. The numbers often do not add to 100% because of instances where no vote was cast.


Party Unity: According to CQ, a Party Unity vote in Congress is one in which the parties were split, with a majority of Democrats opposing a majority of Republicans.

The number under the green check is the percentage of time this Representative or Senator voted with his party; the number under the red X is the percentage of the time he opposed the party. The numbers often do not add to 100% because of instances where no vote was cast.


Presidential Support: These are votes for which the President has stated his position, either in via a message to Congress, by press conference remarks or other public statements and documents.

The number under the green check is the percentage of time this Representative or Senator voted with the President; the number under the red X is the percentage of the time he opposed the President. The numbers often do not add to 100% because of instances where no vote was cast. The "P" column indicates the party of the President in each year.


Vote %: The percentage of roll-call votes in which this Representaive or Senator participated by voting "Yes" or "No" (as opposed to "Present" or not voting at all.)


Liberal Rating: These ratings are based on key votes as identifed by the ultra-liberal advocacy organization called "Americans for Democratic Action" (ADA). They have been rating members of Congress since 1947. The number shown is the percentage of the time this Representative or Senator took the liberal position on a key issue. The methodology behind the calculation can be found here. Ratings followed by an asterisk were calculated the "ADA way" due to missing data regarding key votes in the ADA source material.


Conservative Rating: These ratings are based on key votes as identifed by the conservative advocacy organization called the "American Conservative Union" (ACU). They have been rating members of Congress since 1971. The number shown is the percentage of the time this Representative or Senator took the conservative position on a key issue.

The liberal and conservative ratings are not expected to add to 100% because the two groups use different sets of key votes to determine their ratings. Conservative ratings from 1961 through 1970 (and for 2024) were calculated based on key votes as selected by the creators of this website.