Jim Costa

Democrat · CA-21 · U.S. House

Bio

James Manuel Costa is an American politician serving as the U.S. representative for California's 21st congressional district since 2023. He previously represented the 20th congressional district from 2005 to 2013 and the 16th congressional district from 2013 to 2023. A member of the Democratic Party, his district includes most of Fresno.

Full bio on Wikipedia →

Record of service

In office: 21.6 years
First took office: 2005 (11 terms)
Seniority: 46 of 437 by time served
Age: 74

District offices

Visalia, CA · 559-749-9330
Fresno, CA · 559-495-1620

FEC filings ↗OpenSecrets ↗GovTrack ↗C-SPAN ↗Ballotpedia ↗Vote Smart ↗House History ↗Facebook ↗X/Twitter ↗YouTube ↗

Service history, offices and identifiers from unitedstates/congress-legislators (public domain). Years served sum each term rather than subtracting the first start date, so a break in service is not counted as time in office.

Reported net worth

2019

$3.7M

2020

$3.8M

2021

$4.0M

2022

$4.1M

2023

$4.3M

2024

$3.3M

2025

$3.5M

Most recent filing (2025)

Assets: $1.9M – $7.1M
Liabilities: $600k – $1.3M
Net worth: $602k – $6.5M
Since 2019: −$160k

Largest holdings in the 2025 filing · 25 assets reported

James M. Costa Farms (Sole Proprietorship)$1.0M – $5.0M

Rental Home$500k – $1.0M

Wells Fargo Advisors 401(k) ⇒ MFS SER TR 1 VALUE FD$50k – $100k

Wells Fargo Advisors 401(k) ⇒ NYLI Winslow Large Cap Growth Fund Class I (MLAIX)$50k – $100k

Wells Fargo Advisors 401(k) ⇒ T Rowe Price Overseas Stock Fund$50k – $100k

UMB Financial Corporation - Common Stock (UMBF)$15k – $50k

Wells Fargo Advisors 401(k) ⇒ Allspring Special Mid Cap Value Fund Insti Class (WFMIX)$15k – $50k

Wells Fargo Advisors 401(k) ⇒ American Funds Washington Mutual Investors Fund Class F-2$15k – $50k

Wells Fargo Advisors 401(k) ⇒ Baird Aggregate Bond Fund Class Institutional$15k – $50k

Wells Fargo Advisors 401(k) ⇒ Baron Invt Funds Trust Small Cap Fund$15k – $50k

Wells Fargo Advisors 401(k) ⇒ Baron Select Funds Emerging Markets FD$15k – $50k

Wells Fargo Advisors 401(k) ⇒ Dodge & Cox Stk FD$15k – $50k

Wells Fargo Advisors 401(k) ⇒ Eaton Vance Income Fund of Boston Class I$15k – $50k

Wells Fargo Advisors 401(k) ⇒ Embark Commodity Strategy Fund Institutional Class (ECSWX)$15k – $50k

Wells Fargo Advisors 401(k) ⇒ JPMorgan U.S. Equity Fund Class L (JMUEX)$15k – $50k

Wells Fargo Advisors 401(k) ⇒ JPMorgan Emerging Markets Equity Fund Class L (JMIEX)$15k – $50k

Wells Fargo Advisors 401(k) ⇒ ROWE T PRICE MID CAP GROWTH FUND$15k – $50k

Wells Fargo Advisors 401(k) ⇒ Victory Sycamore Small Co Oppty$15k – $50k

Bank of America$1k – $15k

Portuguese Fraternal Society of America$1k – $15k

United Security Bank$1k – $15k

Wells Fargo Advisors 401(k) ⇒ Causeway International Value Fund - Institutional Class (CIV$1k – $15k

Wells Fargo Advisors 401(k) ⇒ EuroPacific Growth Fund, Class F-2 Shs (AEPFX)$1k – $15k

Wells Fargo Advisors 401(k) ⇒ Goldman Sachs FS Treasury Instruments Fund$1k – $15k

Wells Fargo Advisors 401(k) ⇒ PIMCO Commodities Plus Strategy FD CL$1k – $15k

Largest first, capped at 40 line items. Each is the asset's reported value bracket, not the income it produced.

From annual financial disclosures, which report every asset and debt as a bracket — so these are ranges, and the figure shown is their midpoint. A primary residence is not a reportable asset while its mortgage is a reportable debt, which pushes some members negative. How this is calculated →

Overall lean (DW-NOMINATE)

LeftCenterRight

Issue profile

Taxes & Fiscal

D+0.43

Healthcare

D+0.69

Immigration & Border

D+0.54

Guns

D+0.87

Abortion & Reproductive Rights

D+1.00

Environment & Energy

D+0.22

Crime & Policing

D+0.17

Defense & Veterans

R+0.05

Economy & Labor

D+0.19

Foreign Policy & Trade

D+0.06

Civil Rights & Social

D+0.86

Education

D+0.47

Government & Democracy

D+0.41

Judicial & Executive Nominations

D+0.29

Each issue runs left ↔ right, scored from how the member voted on bills tagged to that issue (−1…+1). Issues with too few votes are blank. Overall lean uses DW-NOMINATE.

How they score against the parties

Jim Costa's voting record compared with each party's national platform, issue by issue — the same similarity score used across the site.

Democratic Party

87%Closest

Green Party

78%

Democratic Socialists (DSA)

74%

Communist Party USA

72%

Libertarian Party

63%

Republican Party

45%

On the political map

Jim Costa (the large ringed dot) among every current member of Congress and the party platforms.

Party platforms:Communist Party USADemocratic Socialists (DSA)Green PartyDemocratic PartyRepublican PartyLibertarian Party

Each small dot is a current member (Dem · Rep); the larger dots are party platforms — click one for its closest members. Economic axis: taxes, healthcare, labor, energy. Social axis: abortion, guns, immigration, civil rights, crime.

Do you vote like Costa?

Answer a few questions on the issues and see which members of Congress — and which party — actually line up with you.

Take the 2-minute quiz

Caucuses & committees

Where Costasits in Congress's own organization — each group's lean is computed from its members' voting records. Explore them all on the caucuses and committees pages.

Caucuses

New Democrat Coalitionstrongly left · 109 members
Blue Dog Coalitionleft · 10 members
Problem Solvers Caucuscenter · 46 members
Congressional Hispanic Caucusstrongly left · 40 members
Congressional Equality Caucusstrongly left · 153 members

Committees

House Committee on Agriculturecenter · 53 members
Forestry and Horticulture Livestock, Dairy, and Poultry (Ranking Member)
House Committee on Foreign Affairscenter · 50 members
Europe

Most and least aligned members

Treating Costa's 14 issue scores as a vector, cosine similarity measures whether two voting records point the same way (+100%) or in opposite directions (−100%) — the colleagues whose records align most and least with theirs.