Aug. 8, 2026Methodology v2.5 · State metrics: 12 source systems, data through 2023–2025 by metric
Political Grades
government — just the stats

Congress › California

James Gallagher

U.S. Representative, CA-01 · Republican · current term began June 10, 2026

James Gallagher
U.S. Representative · California-01 · Republican · current term began June 2026
Chamber
House
not yet gradeable
Their own recordValue
Legislative effectiveness LES · chamber avg = 1.0Data pending
Missed votes lifetime, all service (GovTrack)5.9%
Ideology 0 = left · 1 = right · 119th Congress sponsorship analysis (GovTrack)0.41
Promises keptIn human review
California context — not this member’s grade

House members represent a district, not the whole state, so state numbers aren’t their grade. District-level scoring is in development. The state’s governor, Gavin Newsom, holds the scored executive record.

Scored on their own record; district outcome scoring is in development. Methodology v2.5

The national debt on their watch

context — not this member’s grade

When Gallagher first took office in 2026, the federal debt stood at $37.64 trillion (end of fiscal 2025; Treasury). As of 2026-08-06 it is $39.89 trillion (Treasury, daily). That rise spans presidents, majorities and economies — it belongs to no single member, which is why it is context here and part of no grade. What is Gallagher’s own: their recorded votes when the major fiscal bills came through, beside what the Congressional Budget Office estimated each law would do to deficits.

$10T$20T$30T$40T202520262026took office · $37.64 trillion$39.89 trillion
Total public debt outstanding, fiscal 2025–present, in nominal dollars — no adjustment for inflation or the size of the economy, so early decades understate their era’s burden. Y-axis starts at zero. Source: Treasury.

No recorded votes among the tracked bills that carry a CBO deficit estimate.

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Debt figures as of the data refresh on 2026-08-08. These same votes feed the grade’s fiscal-conduct block (10%, methodology v2.5) — the debt itself feeds nothing: it belongs to no single member, and only their own votes are scored. The change is preregistered and dated in the changelog.

The promise ledger

The evidence base for the promise-keeping block of the grade — 25% of the rubric, reserved until Gallagher is gradeable at all; on the card above it appears only as the “Promises kept — In human review” row. What Gallagher said they would do, in their own words, beside what they did. Said-columns hold verbatim quotes only, from dated, linkable sources, and publish only after two agreeing human reviews — the methodology’s bar, and the reason a column may be empty: the bar does not move to fill it.

In their speeches

No promise from a speech has been published for Gallagher. One appears here only as a verbatim quote from a dated transcript, and only after two agreeing human reviews — the column stays empty until something clears that bar. The raw material is public meanwhile: search C-SPAN’s video archive for Gallagher →

In their advertising

None published yet — same bar as speeches. The public archives are searchable now: the Meta Ad Library and Google’s ad-transparency archive, searched by name — a search, so same-named others may appear in the results.

Bills they introduced

2 bills and resolutions sponsored in the 119th Congress — the newest:

  • H.R. 10022 — CLUSTER Act
    Latest action (2026-08-03): Referred to the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure.
  • H.R. 9512 — Doug LaMalfa Sacramento River Basin Water Security and Reliability Act of 2026
    Latest action (2026-06-29): Referred to the House Committee on Natural Resources.

From the Congress.gov API, as of 2026-08-08. Latest actions are quoted from the record — most introduced bills die in committee, and that is part of the record too.

How they voted

No recorded votes on the bills this site tracks line by line. The full roll-call record is public at Congress.gov.

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No federal fiscal year has closed inside this term yet, so there is no spending chart here. The next one to close is FY2026, on Sept. 30, 2026, and OMB has not published it.

How Gallagher is graded

A representative serves a district, not a state, and no honest district-level outcome trend exists yet — redistricting redrew the lines and leaves too few data points. So Gallagher is graded on bills alone: how far the legislation they sponsor actually moves. Voting alignment and attendance are in the rubric but reserved, not counted. The state’s numbers are shown as context on the card, never folded into the grade, until district-level scoring ships.

Legislative Effectiveness Scores come from the Center for Effective Lawmaking, which benchmarks each chamber’s average to 1.0. Voting statistics come from GovTrack. The Honesty ledger — promises matched against this member’s votes — publishes only with an evidence trail and two agreeing human reviews.

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