Cárdenas is the representative for California’s 29th congressional district (view map) and is a Democrat. He has served since Jan 3, 2013. Cárdenas is next up for reelection in 2020.
![Photo of Rep. Tony Cárdenas [D-CA29]](/static/legislator-photos/412517-200px.jpeg)
Analysis
Legislative Metrics
Read our 2018 Report Card for Cárdenas.
Ideology–Leadership Chart
Cárdenas is shown as a purple triangle ▲ in our ideology-leadership chart below. Each dot is a member of the House of Representatives positioned according to our liberal–conservative ideology score (left to right) and our leadership score (leaders are toward the top).
The chart is based on the bills Cárdenas has sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 6, 2015 to Jul 17, 2019. See full analysis methodology.
Ratings from Advocacy Organizations
Committee Membership
Tony Cárdenas sits on the following committees:
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House Committee on Energy and Commerce
- Vice Chair, Subcommittee on Consumer Protection and Commerce
- Member, Subcommittee on Communications and Technology
- Member, Subcommittee on Health
Enacted Legislation
Cárdenas was the primary sponsor of 1 bill that was enacted:
Does 1 not sound like a lot? Very few bills are ever enacted — most legislators sponsor only a handful that are signed into law. But there are other legislative activities that we don’t track that are also important, including offering amendments, committee work and oversight of the other branches, and constituent services.
We consider a bill enacted if one of the following is true: a) it is enacted itself, b) it has a companion bill in the other chamber (as identified by Congress) which was enacted, or c) if at least about half of its provisions were incorporated into bills that were enacted (as determined by an automated text analysis, applicable beginning with bills in the 110th Congress).
Bills Sponsored
Issue Areas
Cárdenas sponsors bills primarily in these issue areas:
Crime and Law Enforcement (25%) Civil Rights and Liberties, Minority Issues (16%) Education (13%) Commerce (13%) Health (10%) Government Operations and Politics (8%) Transportation and Public Works (8%) Taxation (7%)
Recent Bills
Some of Cárdenas’s most recently sponsored bills include...
- H.R. 3261: Less Traffic with Smart Stop Lights Act of 2019
- H.R. 3172: Safe Sleep Act of 2019
- H.R. 2906: Clean Commute for Kids Act of 2019
- H.R. 2865: Reverse Mass Incarceration Act of 2019
- H.Res. 360: Expressing support for the designation of the week of May 5, 2019, through ...
- H.R. 2300: Eliminating Debtor’s Prison for Kids Act of 2019
- H.R. 2063: E-FRONTIER Act
Voting Record
Key Votes
Missed Votes
From Jan 2013 to Jul 2019, Cárdenas missed 283 of 4,235 roll call votes, which is 6.7%. This is much worse than the median of 2.1% among the lifetime records of representatives currently serving. The chart below reports missed votes over time.
We don’t track why legislators miss votes, but it’s often due to medical absenses and major life events.
Primary Sources
The information on this page is originally sourced from a variety of materials, including:
- unitedstates/congress-legislators, a community project gathering congressional information
- The House and Senate websites, for committee membership and voting records
- GPO Member Guide for the photo
- GovInfo.gov, for sponsored bills
