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Official portrait of Jim Costa

Jim Costa

D Democrat · Representative, California 21st district
23
Low self-dealing
3/6 components have data
#85 of 193 scored

Jim Costa is a long-serving Democratic U.S. Representative from California (in Congress since 2005, currently CA-21) and a senior member of the House Agriculture Committee. His wealth (estimated ~$4.4-4.9M) is concentrated in farmland and real estate (James M. Costa Farms, a rental home) rather than a stock portfolio; financial trackers show essentially no individual-stock trading activity, so STOCK Act self-dealing risk is minimal. His campaign donor base is heavily concentrated in agribusiness/crop-production interests that align with his committee role and longstanding pro-agriculture advocacy, which represents correlation rather than proof of quid pro quo. The most notable accountability data point is his missed-vote rate of about 5.4% (748 of 13,828 lifetime votes through May 2026), well above the ~2.1% median for sitting representatives; no documented ethics violations, campaign-fund personal-use findings, or family-lobbying ties were located.

Public record

In Congress since
2005
Committees
Agriculture
Foreign Affairs
Missed votes, 119th Congress
3.9% (26 of 674; median member 1.9%)
Campaign money, 2025–26 cycle
$1.3M raised · 60% from PACs & committees · $939K cash on hand FEC ↗

The stock-trading ban

H.R. 7008 passage, Jul 22, 2026
No
Cosponsored a ban bill
None

H.R. 7008 bans new stock purchases by members, spouses and dependents; it doesn't force sales of existing holdings. The Senate vote was on the version paired with the SAVE Act, which is why no Democrat voted yes. Full breakdown →

Disclosed stock trades

No periodic transaction reports on file since 2024. That's the norm: most members don't trade individual stocks, or hold them in blind trusts and diversified funds.

Amounts are the ranges members must report, not exact values. The STOCK Act requires a report within 45 days of a trade; "late" counts days past that deadline, measured to the filing date.

How the score breaks down

Stock self-trading
25% weight
5
Trackers show ~$0 in live-tracked publicly traded assets and only up to ~$15K of parsed STOCK Act trades over his tenure; wealth is in farmland/real estate, not individual stocks. Minimal trading volume, no evident committee-sector stock overlap or suspicious timing.
Quiver Quantitative parses only up to $15K of trades and estimates ~$0 in live-trackable publicly traded assets for Costa.Data aggregatorquiverquant.com ↗OpenSecrets net-worth holdings are dominated by James M Costa Farms (~$3M) and a rental home (~$1.1M), not equities.Reference databaseopensecrets.org ↗
Net-worth enrichment in officeno data
15% weight
—
Estimated net worth ~$4.4-4.9M is largely pre-existing farm and real estate holdings (family farming background). No sourced evidence of net-worth growth beyond salary and market returns attributable to office; pre-office wealth is not scored.
OpenSecrets estimated Costa's net worth at ~$4.9M (2018), concentrated in long-held crop production and real estate assets.Reference databaseopensecrets.org ↗
Money → action alignmentcorrelation, not proof of any quid-pro-quo
20% weight
40
Correlation, not proof: Costa's top industry donor is Crop Production & Basic Processing (~$176,650 in 2023-24), and agribusiness broadly is his largest support base, aligning with his senior House Agriculture Committee role and consistent pro-agriculture advocacy. Concentration is high but reflects district/committee fit; no evidence of vote-for-cash.
Costa's top 2023-24 industry contributor was Crop Production & Basic Processing (~$176,650); he sits on House Agriculture Committee.Reference databaseopensecrets.org ↗Costa publicly champions agriculture policy consistent with his agribusiness donor base.Official recordcosta.house.gov ↗
Campaign-fund personal useno data
15% weight
—
No sourced reports of campaign or leadership-PAC funds used for personal benefit, and no FEC enforcement or House Ethics findings against Costa were located.
FEC disclosure records for Jim Costa for Congress are publicly filed; no personal-use violation findings surfaced.Official recorddocquery.fec.gov ↗
Revolving door & familyno data
15% weight
—
No sourced evidence of family members lobbying his office, contracts tied to his office, or a documented staff-to-lobbyist pipeline distinct from ordinary turnover.
LegiStorm staff/bio records for Costa show routine staffing; no documented family-lobbying or contract ties surfaced.Reference databaselegistorm.com ↗
Skips the job to fundraise
10% weight
35
Costa missed ~5.4% of roll-call votes (748 of 13,828 from 2005-May 2026), more than double the ~2.1% median for sitting representatives, while maintaining active fundraising (e.g., disclosed quarters of $256.4K and $113.7K). Elevated absences but no paid-speech abuse documented.
Costa missed 748 of 13,828 votes (5.4%), versus a 2.1% median, per GovTrack.Reference databasegovtrack.us ↗Costa disclosed $256.4K in new fundraising in a reported period.Data aggregatorquiverquant.com ↗

Sources behind this score: 2 data aggregator · 5 reference database · 2 official record. Score = weighted average of the components that have data; the 3 without sourced evidence are excluded, never counted against the member. Methodology →

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