Rep. Jim Costa leads race in newly drawn Fresno-area congressional district

Rep. Jim Costa is in a closer race than some experts had predicted for his 10th term in the U.S. House of Representatives, as he leads his Republican challenger by less than 7 percentage points in Fresno’s newly drawn district.

A moderate “Blue Dog” Democrat, Costa, 70, has represented the Fresno area in Congress since 2005.

Costa had 53.4% of the votes in the newly drawn 21st Congressional District, according to the Associated Press, with less than 46% of the votes counted. His challenger, businessman and veteran Michael Maher, gathered 46.6%.

The Fresno native is part of the Problem Solvers Caucus, a bipartisan group that looks for common ground. He is also a prominent member of the Blue Dog Coalition, a collection of moderate Democrats who press for “fiscally responsible” legislation.

He sits on House committees for agriculture, natural resources and foreign affairs.

Costa currently represents California’s 16th Congressional District, which covers all of Merced County and parts of Fresno and Madera counties. That district will cease to exist at the start of next congressional term in January as new maps formed through redistricting take effect.

Redistricting, the once-a-decade redrawing of legislative boundaries based on 2020 Census data, put Costa in the new 21st District. It holds most of the city of Fresno, covers parts of Fresno and Tulare counties and was expected to pick a Democrat.

Costa has worked to secure funding for Central Valley water access, infrastructure and health care projects. He firmly stands against the Supreme Court’s recent decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, which established federal abortion protections almost 50 years ago.

As a freshman congressman, alongside former Republican Rep. Ted Poe, Costa founded the Crime Survivors and Justice Caucus that seeks to help victims of crime. He was an original cosponsor of the act to provide a pathway to citizenship for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients.

Costa first took political office as a member of the California State Assembly in 1978 at age 26, becoming the then-youngest member of the Legislature. He served in the Assembly for 16 years, then the State Senate for eight.

A third-generation Central Valley farmer whose grandparents immigrated to the U.S. from the Azores, Costa was raised on a dairy farm in Kearney Park.

Sacramento Bee reporter Maya Miller contributed reporting.