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Mark Takano

U.S. House · CA-39 · Democrats · since 2025

also

Candidate for U.S. House · CA-39

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Biography

Overview

Mark Takano is a Democratic U.S. Representative from California's 39th district, serving since 2013. He was the first openly gay person of Asian descent elected to Congress. A former high school teacher and community college trustee, Takano has represented two different districts in his tenure and serves as Ranking Member of the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs.

Career

Takano was chairman of the House Veterans' Affairs Committee during the 116th Congress and earned an "A" grade from the Lugar Center's Congressional Oversight Hearing Index for his oversight work. He has consistently supported LGBTQ+ rights, co-chairing the Congressional LGBT Equality Caucus. He supported both impeachments of Donald Trump and has championed civil liberties protections, including legislation honoring Fred Korematsu. He advocated for transgender service members facing forced retirement under the Trump administration.

Prior political experience

Takano first ran for Congress in 1992 in California's 43rd district, winning the Democratic primary with 29% but losing to Republican Ken Calvert 47%-46%. He ran again in 1994, defeating the Democratic primary opponent 70%-30% but losing the general election to Calvert 55%-38%. In 2012, he won the open primary for the newly redrawn 41st district with 37% (second place) and then won the general election against Republican John Tavaglione 58%-42%, becoming the first openly gay non-white House member. He was re-elected in 2020 with 168,126 votes (64.0%) in California's 39th district.

Biographical material adapted from the Wikipedia article (retrieved April 29, 2026), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Ideology

Liberal–Conservative (DW-NOMINATE dim 1)

Liberal
Conservative
119th Congress-0.456

Secondary axis (DW-NOMINATE dim 2)(?)

−1
+1
-0.331
Source: Voteview DW-NOMINATE · 345 scored votes

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Officeholding history

TermSeatTerm datesTerminationPredecessorSuccessor
2ndU.S. House CA-392025–presentIn progressMark Takano—
1stU.S. House CA-392023–2025Term endedYoung KimMark Takano
5thU.S. House CA-412021–2023Term endedMark TakanoKen Calvert
4thU.S. House CA-412019–2021Term endedMark TakanoMark Takano
3rdU.S. House CA-412017–2019Term endedMark TakanoMark Takano
2ndU.S. House CA-412015–2017Term endedMark TakanoMark Takano
1stU.S. House CA-412013–2015Term ended—Mark Takano

Committee assignments

Current term legislation

Bills sponsored this term10

Bills cosponsored this term10

Elections

YearSeatResultVote shareField
2024U.S. House CA-41Won64.03%