Dennis Cardoza was elected as a Democrat to the
U.S. House of Representatives in 2002 after
defeating his former boss in the Democratic
primary, and became a staple on the powerful Agriculture
Committee. A self-styled “raging moderate,” Cardoza often
enlisted bipartisan support for his projects while pursuing
the interests of his largely agricultural-based constituency
in central California. “You’re paid to make the tough
choices,” he commented shortly after his election, “and
you’re paid to do the right thing.”1
The son of dairy farmers turned business owners, Cardoza
was born in Merced, California, on March 31, 1959. Like
many in California’s Central Valley, Cardoza was of
Portuguese descent; his grandparents emigrated from the
Azores during the 1920s.2 After interning on Capitol Hill
and graduating from the University of Maryland, College
Park, with a bachelor’s degree in government and politics,
Cardoza returned to California, where he won a spot on the
Atwater city council in 1984. He worked for then-state
assemblyman Gary Condit, transferring to Washington
when Condit won election to the U.S. House of
Representatives. After his stint as an aide, Cardoza returned
to California, where he took over his family’s bowling alley
company. He moved back to Merced and served on its
city council from 1994 to 1996, when he was elected to
California’s general assembly. Cardoza served in the state
assembly for six years, eventually chairing its rules
committee.3 But when Condit’s congressional career
unraveled amid a highly publicized scandal, Cardoza, who
was facing a term limit in the state assembly, challenged the
incumbent in the district’s Democratic primary in 2002.4
One of the year’s few competitive races, the election for
California’s recently redrawn 18th District attracted
widespread attention.5 Cardoza won the primary election
handily and then defeated his Republican challenger in the
general election, taking 51 percent of the vote. After that,
he faced virtually no opposition in the party primary and
dominated each of his subsequent general elections.6
Cardoza married Dr. Kathleen McLoughlin, and they have
three children: Joey, Brittany Mari, and Elaina.
Known as an energetic lawmaker willing to pursue
bipartisan compromise, Cardoza initially used
appointments to the Agriculture, Resources, and Science
Committees in the 108th Congress (2003–2005) to
legislate on pollution and water-access issues that were of
great importance to his agricultural district. During the
109th Congress (2005–2007), Cardoza continued his
tenure on the Agriculture Committee and the Resources
Committee (later renamed Natural Resources) but left the
Committee on Science for a seat on International Relations
(later renamed Foreign Affairs). He worked to improve
the conditions for the nation’s farmers, introducing efforts
to facilitate communication between local, state, and
federal authorities during environmental disasters and crop
failures. Early on, Cardoza championed renewable sources
of energy such as solar power. He also took a notable
interest in reforming the country’s foster care system after
he and his wife repeatedly experienced frustrations as
adoptive parents.7 Cardoza also was committed to helping
homeowners and mortgage holders and successfully
spearheaded efforts to erect a University of California
campus in Merced, which opened in 2005.8 His skill as a
legislator earned him a coveted spot on the Rules Committee
for the 110th Congress (2007–2009). Although he gave
up seats on Foreign Affairs and Natural Resources, he kept
his spot on the Committee on Agriculture, having become
chairman of its Subcommittee on Horticulture and Organic
Agriculture in time to help draft the 2008 Farm Bill. In the
112th Congress (2011–2013), Cardoza sat on the Foreign
Affairs and Agriculture Committees.
In addition to his committee work, Cardoza took an
active role in caucus and party leadership. A member of the
Blue Dog Coalition, which he co-chaired during the 109th
Congress, Cardoza opposed continued federal borrowing
and advocated offsetting costs in real time, writing “quite
simply it’s high time our country starts paying for what it
buys.”9 A member of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus
(CHC) for his entire congressional career, Cardoza also was
elected to the powerful Democratic Steering and Policy
Committee, a leadership group responsible for Members
for committee assignments. In 2008 Cardoza co-chaired
a program initiated by the Democratic Congressional
Campaign Committee, which helps fund and support
Democratic campaigns in the House.10
In October 2011, Representative Cardoza announced
that he would retire from the House at the conclusion of
the 112th Congress in January 2013. He resigned his seat
on August 15, 2012.11
View Record in the Biographical Directory of the U.S. Congress
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