Thomas Miller McClintock II (born July 10, 1956) is an American politician serving as the U.S. representative for since 2009 (known as the 4th congressional district until 2023). His district stretches from the Sacramento suburbs to the outer suburbs of Fresno; it includes Yosemite National Park. A member of the Republican Party, McClintock served as a California state assemblyman from 1982 to 1992 and from 1996 to 2000, when he became a California state senator, a position he held until 2008. He unsuccessfully ran for governor of California in the 2003 recall election and for Lieutenant Governor of California in the 2006 election.
Early life, education and early political career
McClintock was born on July 10, 1956, in Westchester County, New York. His family moved to Thousand Oaks, California, in 1965. He was chief of staff to State Senator Ed Davis from 1980 to 1982. From 1992 to 1994, he served as director of the Center for the California Taxpayer. He was director of the Claremont Institute's Golden State Center for Policy Studies from 1995 to 1996.
California politics
thumb|upright|left|McClintock in 1988, during his first [[California State Assembly|State Assembly tenure.]]
California Assembly (1982–1992, 1996–2000)
In 1982, at age 26, McClintock ran for California's 36th State Assembly district, then based in Thousand Oaks, after redistricting. He defeated Democrat Harriet Kosmo Henson 56%–44%. He was reelected in 1984, defeating Tom Jolicoeur 72%–28%.
California Senate (2000–2008)
thumb|Tom McClintock as a California State SenatorIn 2000, McClintock retired from the California Assembly to run for California's 19th State Senate district. He ranked first in the March 7 open primary with 52% of the vote. In November, he defeated Democrat Daniel Gonzalez, 58%–42%. In 2000, he was instrumental in proposing a two-thirds reduction in the vehicle license fee, or car tax. In 2003, he opposed then-Governor Gray Davis's attempt to rescind a rollback of a vehicle license fee. McClintock has also opposed deficit reduction efforts that would have increased taxes. He supported the Bureaucracy Reduction and Closure Commission and performance-based budgeting.
Other elections
1994 controller election
McClintock ran for California State Controller after incumbent Gray Davis retired. He won the Republican primary, defeating John Morris, 61%–39%.
2006 lieutenant gubernatorial election
McClintock ran for lieutenant governor in 2006. He defeated Tony Farmer in the Republican primary, 94–6%. He was also endorsed by the Republican Liberty Caucus, the Club for Growth, and U.S. Representative Ron Paul. McClintock faced former U.S. Representative Doug Ose, a moderate who represented the neighboring 3rd District from 1999 to 2005. Like McClintock, Ose lived outside the district and was painted as a carpetbagger and a liberal who had voted to raise taxes and who voted for earmarks. McClintock defeated Ose, 54–39%. Ose's campaign commercials argued McClintock did not own or rent a home in the 19th district, but claimed his mother's home in Thousand Oaks as his state senate district residence. These attacks prompted a response from McClintock's wife, Lori, who said McClintock stayed with his mother to care for her after she fell ill and after the death of her husband. McClintock ran ads attacking Brown's participation at a 2005 protest by Code Pink, a prominent antiwar group, and argued Brown supported gay marriage but not the troops in Iraq. He also portrayed Brown as a clone of Speaker Nancy Pelosi. He prevailed by a 3,500-vote margin in Placer County, the district's largest county. Brown won three of the district's nine counties: Sierra (49.8%), Plumas (47.9%), and Nevada (42.3%). McClintock won mainly on the coattails from John McCain, who carried the 4th with 54% of the vote, his fifth-best total in the state.
2010
McClintock defeated Michael Babich in the Republican primary, Babich 78–22%.
In 2012, California instituted its "top two" primary, in which candidates of all parties run against one another and the top two finishers, regardless of party, advance to the general election. McClintock and Democrat Jack Uppal were the only candidates in the "top two" primary, so the general election was a rematch. The reconfigured 4th was as strongly Republican as its predecessor, and McClintock was reelected to a third term, defeating Uppal 61%–39% in the general election. McClintock won all but two of the district's ten counties: Alpine (41%) and Nevada (37%).
2016
McClintock again finished first in the primary and defeated Democrat Robert W. Derlet, a physician, environmentalist and retired UC Davis professor, in the general election, 63%–37%.
2018
McClintock defeated Democratic challenger Jessica Morse in the general election, receiving 184,401 votes to her 156,253 (54.1% to 45.9%).
Tenure
During the 112th Congress, McClintock was one of 40 members of the Republican Study Committee who frequently voted against Republican Party leadership and vocally expressed displeasure with House bills. In 2011, he voted against the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012 due to a provision that would allow the government and the military to indefinitely detain American citizens and others without trial. McClintock's chief of staff, Igor Birman, was a candidate for Congress in California's 7th congressional district in 2014.
In 2009, McClintock signed a pledge sponsored by Americans for Prosperity promising to vote against any global warming legislation that would raise taxes.
McClintock voted in favor of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017. He voted against the first version of the bill, displeased with the removal of deductions related to medical expenses, student loan interest, and casualty loss. Those three items were addressed in the final version of the bill. McClintock said the bill would "restore American workers to an internationally competitive position." He expressed concern about the bill's impact on the budget deficit and anticipated that it would be addressed "by spending reforms this coming year."
In 2017, McClintock called for special prosecutor Robert Mueller to investigate President Donald Trump. McClintock felt that Trump's firing of James Comey justified a special prosecutor.
After Trump pulled 1,000 U.S. troops from Kurdish-held territory on the Syrian border south of Turkey in 2019, a bipartisan resolution passed the House, 354–60, that condemned him for abandoning those U.S. allies that would allow the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) to reestablish and regroup its forces, and allow the Turks to attack the Kurds. McClintock was one of the two members of California's congressional delegation to vote against it.
In 2020, McClintock was the sole House Republican to cosponsor the Ending Qualified Immunity Act, which was proposed in response to the murder of George Floyd and resultant widespread protests. The act was introduced by Justin Amash and Ayanna Pressley and cosponsored by 62 House Democrats in addition to McClintock. Because Amash was a registered Libertarian as of the act's introduction in June 2020, McClintock's support technically made the act the first tripartisan piece of federal legislation in modern U.S. history.
In the 118th Congress, McClintock voted against multiple motions to discipline certain Democrats in office, such as the first censure of Adam Schiff, the censure of Rashida Tlaib, and the impeachment of Alejandro Mayorkas. In each, he lambasted their actions but believed the motions were an erosion of the standards to which such motions should be held. Despite making a speech supporting holding Merrick Garland in contempt of Congress for the federal prosecution of Donald Trump, he would vote against holding him in contempt for refusing to release the audio files of the Hur interviews in the Joe Biden classified documents incident.
As of October 2021, McClintock had voted in line with Joe Biden's stated position 5% of the time.
Legislation
McClintock supported the Water Rights Protection Act, a bill that would prevent federal agencies from requiring certain entities to relinquish their water rights to the United States to use public lands. The bill was a reaction to the United States Forest Service's decision to pursue a "new regulation to demand that water rights be transferred to the federal government as a condition for obtaining permits needed to operate 121 ski resorts that cross over federal lands." McClintock supported the bill, saying that the Forest Service's regulation "illustrates an increasingly hostile attitude by this agency toward those who make productive use of our vast national forests, in this case by enhancing and attracting the tourism upon which our mountain communities depend."
- Committee on Natural Resources
- Subcommittee on Federal Lands
- Subcommittee on Water, Wildlife and Fisheries
- Committee on the Budget
- Committee on the Judiciary
- Subcommittee on Immigration Integrity, Security, and Enforcement (Chair)
- Subcommittee on the Constitution and Limited Government
Caucus memberships
- Congressional Arts Caucus
- Republican Study Committee
- Tea Party Caucus
- American Sikh Congressional Caucus
- Congressional Constitution Caucus
- Congressional Western Caucus
- United States Congressional International Conservation Caucus
- House Freedom Caucus (Formerly)
Political positions
2020 presidential election
In December 2020, McClintock joined 125 other Republican members of Congress in signing an amicus brief in support of a lawsuit by the attorney general of the state of Texas that sought to overturn the certified results of the 2020 presidential election in four other U.S. states. The lawsuit was called a "seditious abuse of the judicial process" by the attorney general of Pennsylvania, and "simply madness" by 2012 Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi issued a statement that called signing the amicus brief an act of "election subversion."
McClintock later became one of seven Republicans who did not support their colleagues' efforts to challenge the results of the election on January 6, 2021. These seven signed a letter that, while giving credence to election fraud allegations Trump made, said Congress did not have the authority to influence the election's outcome.
McClintock voted against impeaching Trump over his role in inciting the 2021 storming of the U.S. Capitol.
Animal rights
McClintock has said that "farm animals are food, not friends." Known as the McClintock–Polis Amendment, it failed by a 206–222 vote.
In 2016, McClintock endorsed California's Proposition 64, the Adult Use of Marijuana Act. He stated: "Our current laws have failed us, and have created a violent and criminal black market that actively and aggressively markets to young people. Legalization takes the criminal profit out of the equation, and allows us to regulate marijuana the same way we currently regulate alcohol."
In 2020, McClintock was one of five House Republicans to vote for the Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement (MORE) Act to legalize cannabis at the federal level. In 2021, he was one of four original cosponsors of a Republican-led legalization bill named the States Reform Act.
COVID-19
During the COVID-19 pandemic, McClintock expressed the view that wearing face masks should not be mandatory, and while wearing a mask during congressional sessions, said, "this mask is useless". During the second impeachment of Donald Trump, McClintock wore a mask that read "This mask is as useless as our governor", referring to Governor Gavin Newsom.
Defense
In September 2021, McClintock was among 75 House Republicans to vote against the National Defense Authorization Act of 2022, which contains a provision that would require women to be drafted.
Environment
McClintock questions the role that human activity plays in climate change, arguing that the "climate has been changing for four and a half billion years."
Fiscal restraint
In 2025, McClintock introduced a bill to provide a Line-Item Veto by amending the US Constitution. The proposal would grant the President the authority to eliminate or reduce specific appropriations funding authorization bills.
Foreign policy
In 2019, McClintock was one of 60 representatives to vote against condemning Trump's withdrawal from Syria.
In 2020, McClintock voted against the National Defense Authorization Act of 2021, which would prevent the president from withdrawing soldiers from Afghanistan without congressional approval.
In June 2021, McClintock was one of 49 House Republicans to vote to repeal the AUMF against Iraq.
In July 2021, McClintock was one of five House Republicans to vote against a bill that allocates $2.1 billion for Afghan visas and Capitol Hill security.
In 2023, McClintock was among 47 Republicans to vote in favor of H.Con.Res. 21, which directed President Joe Biden to remove U.S. troops from Syria within 180 days.
Human and civil rights
McClintock opposes same-sex marriage. In 2008, he said, "calling a homosexual partnership a marriage doesn't make it one."
Immigration
McClintock voted against the Fairness for High-Skilled Immigrants Act of 2019 which would amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to eliminate the per-country numerical limitation for employment-based immigrants, to increase the per-country numerical limitation for family-sponsored immigrants, and for other purposes.
McClintock voted against the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2020 which authorizes DHS to nearly double the available H-2B visas for the remainder of FY 2020.
McClintock voted against Consolidated Appropriations Act (H.R. 1158) which effectively prohibits ICE from cooperating with Health and Human Services to detain or remove illegal alien sponsors of unaccompanied alien children (UACs).
Voting rights
McClintock opposes mail-in voting, saying in 2020 that it was a "corrupted process" that allows ballots to be sent to voters who have died or moved away.
Personal life
McClintock was married to Lori McClintock until her death in December 2021, from dehydration due to gastroenteritis caused, according to a coroner's report, by "adverse effects of white mulberry leaf ingestion". McClintock is a Baptist. , he lives in Elk Grove, California.
Electoral history
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! colspan="4" |California State Controller Republican primary election, 1994
|-
!Party
!Candidate
!Votes
!%
|-
|Republican
|Tom McClintock
|1,112,435
|60.8
|-
|Republican
|John Morris
|717,681
|39.2
|-
| colspan="2" |Total votes
|1,830,116
|100
|-
| colspan="2" |Voter turnout
| colspan="2" |%
|}
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! colspan="4" |California State Controller Republican primary election, 2002
|-
!Party
!Candidate
!Votes
!%
|-
|Republican
|Tom McClintock
|948,539
|45.8
|-
|Republican
|Dean Andal
|736,317
|35.5
|-
|Republican
|Snow Hume
|194,883
|9.4
|-
|Republican
|Nancy Beecham
|194,583
|9.3
|-
| colspan="2" |Total votes
|2,074,322
|100
|-
| colspan="2" |Voter turnout
| colspan="2" |%
|}
For a complete list of all candidates who participated in the 2003 recall election, see 2003 California gubernatorial recall election.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! colspan="4" |California State Lieutenant Gubernatorial Republican primary election, 2006
|-
!Party
!Candidate
!Votes
!%
|-
|Republican
|Tom McClintock
|1,760,667
|93.8
|-
|Republican
|Tony Farmer
|117,335
|6.2
|-
| colspan="2" |Total votes
|1,878,002
|100
|-
| colspan="2" |Voter turnout
| colspan="2" |%
|}
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! colspan="4" |California's 4th Congressional District Republican primary election, 2008
|-
|Party
|Candidate
|Votes
|%
|-
|Republican
|Tom McClintock
|51,655
|53.5
|-
|Republican
|Doug Ose
|37,802
|39.2
|-
|Republican
|Suzanne Jones
|4,920
|5.0
|-
|Republican
|Theodore Terbolizard
|2,249
|2.3
|-
| colspan="2" |Total votes
|96,626
|100
|-
| colspan="2" |Voter turnout
| colspan="2" |%
|}
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! colspan="4" |California's 4th Congressional District Republican primary election, 2010
|-
!Party
!Candidate
!Votes
!%
|-
|Republican
|Tom McClintock (incumbent)
|89,443
|78.5
|-
|Republican
|Michael Babich
|24,528
|21.5
|-
| colspan="2" |Total votes
|113,971
|100
|-
| colspan="2" |Voter turnout
| colspan="2" |%
|}
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! colspan="4" |California's 4th Congressional district primary election, 2014
|-
!Party
!Candidate
!Votes
!%
|-
|Republican
|Tom McClintock (incumbent)
|80,999
|56.2
|-
|Republican
|Arthur "Art" Moore
|32,855
|22.8
|-
|Independent
|Jeffrey Gerlach
|30,300
|21.0
|-
| colspan="2" |Total votes
|144,154
|100
|-
| colspan="2" |Voter turnout
| colspan="2" |%
|}
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! colspan="4" |California's 4th Congressional district election, 2014
|-
!Party
!Candidate
!Votes
!%
|-
|Republican
|Tom McClintock (incumbent)
|126,784
|60.0
|-
|Republican
|Arthur "Art" Moore
|84,350
|40.0
|-
| colspan="2" |Total votes
|211,134
|100
|-
| colspan="2" |Voter turnout
| colspan="2" |%
|}
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! colspan="4" |California's 4th Congressional district primary election, 2016
|-
!Party
!Candidate
!Votes
!%
|-
|Republican
|Tom McClintock (incumbent)
|135,626
|61.5
|-
|Democratic
|Robert Derlet
|60,574
|27.5
|-
|Democratic
|Sean White
|24,460
|11.1
|}
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! colspan="4" |California's 4th Congressional district election, 2016
|-
!Party
!Candidate
!Votes
!%
|-
|Republican
|Tom McClintock (incumbent)
|220,133
|62.7
|-
|Democratic
|Robert W. Derlet
|130,845
|37.3
|-
| colspan="2" |Total votes
|350,978
|100
|}
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! colspan="4" |California's 4th Congressional district election 2018
|-
!Party
!Candidate
!Votes
!%
|-
|Republican
|Tom McClintock (incumbent)
|247,291
|55.9
|-
|Democratic
|Brynne Kennedy
|194,731
|44.1
|-
|Total Votes
|
|442,022
|100
|}
Notes
References
External links
- Congressman Tom McClintock official U.S. House website
- Tom McClintock for Congress
- Join California Tom McClintock
;Statements
- Video Response to President Calderon
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