Jim Himes: The Third Way

About Jim: (https://www.thirdway.org/about/co-chairs/rep-jim-himes)

Born: July 5th, 1966 in Lima Peru to American parents, he spent his early childhood in Peru and Colombia before moving to New Jersey.

Lives: Himes lives in the Cos Cob section of Greenwich in Connecticut.

Education: Graduated Harvard University with a Bachelor of Arts, studied for a degree in Latin American studies as a Rhodes scholar at St Edmund Hall, Oxford and graduated with a Master of Philosophy.

Jobs: Jim Himes got his start at Goldman Sachs as a banker. He began this portion of his career in Latin America before going to work in New York, eventually being promoted to vice president of the company. This changed in 2003 when he went on to work for the Enterprise Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to addressing the unique challenges of urban poverty, being eventually named vice president in 2007. Jim’s time at Enterprise gave him some unique insight into the economic solutions to urban poverty, being eventually inspired to run for Congress after some time as a Commissioner of the Greenwich Housing Authority.

Religious Affiliation: Presbyterian

Family: On October 15, 1994, he married Mary Linley Scott. Mary was an assistant designer at Dorf Associates, a retail design firm in New York. She graduated from McGill University and from the Parsons School of Design. Jim also has two daughters, Emma and Linley. Emma currently attends the University of Pennsylvania.

Tenure as Congressman: 2009-Present

Himes ran in 2008 facing 10 term incumbent Republican Chris Shays in Connecticut's 4th Congressional District. Himes won 51 to 47 percent, astoundingly winning despite losing 14 of the 17 towns within the district to Shays. However, Himes carried in the three of the districts largest cities, Bridgeport, Norwalk and Stamford, winning as much as 80 percent of the vote in Bridgeport itself, which lent him his eventual victory.

From the 2008 election onwards Himes has carried his district’s reelections with relative ease, winning his 2010 election 53.1 to 46.9 percent, his 2012 election 60 to 40 percent, his 2014 campaign 53.8 to 46.2 percent, his 2016 campaign 59.9 to 40.1 percent, and his most recent campaign in 2018 60.9 to 39.1 percent. )(https://ballotpedia.org/Jim_Himes)

One of Himes' biggest strengths as a campaigner has been his capability to attract big money donors, which is important in a district as spendy as Connecticut's 4th. Only 4% of his donations came from small individual donors, while 60% came from large individual donors. The remaining donations came mostly from Political Action Committees totalling around 34%. (https://www.opensecrets.org/members-of-congress/summary?cid=N00029070&cycle=2010) Himes has regularly raised well over two million dollars for each of his campaigns, reaching almost as high as four million during his 2008 election.

Leadership: Jim Himes currently serves as a member of the House Committee on Financial Services, serves as the ranking member of the NSA and Cybersecurity Subcommittee of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, and is Chair of the New Democrat Coalition.

Voting Record:  Jim Himes voting record has been relatively consistent, Himes was ranked as a "moderate Democratic follower" as of July 2014 based on an analysis of bill sponsorship by GovTrack (https://www.govtrack.us/congress/members/james_himes/412282). Himes voted with the Democratic Party 91.5 percent of the time, which ranked 141st among the 204 House Democratic members as of July 2014. As chair of the New Democrat Coalition, a group of business-centric Democrats though, he has had some significant partings with some of his more progressive colleagues. For example, he voted with house republicans to fulfill Trump's campaign promise to roll back Obama era protections put in place to prevent another financial meltdown. He also voted for the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief and Consumer Protection Act, which freed banks with less than $250 billion in assets from stricter federal oversight. Himes additionally co-sponsored H.R. 992 which rolled back provisions in section 716 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. Himes’ support of Banking, Securities & Investment and Insurance industries has been the source of criticism from some of his colleagues, who believes he is merely pandering to some of his largest donors. (https://www.opensecrets.org/members-of-congress/summary?cid=N00029070)