Perennial candidate Ammar Campa-Najjar believes he can finally win an election, with new bid for CA-48 ...Middle East

Ammar Campa-Najjar has lost every election he’s run in.

Many California Democrats who’ve backed Campa-Najjar in the past don’t want to see him run again. In 2018 and 2020, he easily won the California Democratic Party’s official endorsement, but this year, he did not. And yet, Campa-Najjar thinks 2026 is his best shot at winning.

Campa-Najjar first ran for Congress in 2018 against Rep. Duncan Hunter, who had been indicted for misusing campaign funds, losing by 3.4 percentage points. He lost in 2020 to Rep. Darrell Issa by 8 percentage points. He lost the Chula Vista mayoral race to John McCann in 2022 by 4.2 percentage points.

With California’s newly redrawn congressional map, Issa’s district became more Democratic, inspiring Campa-Najjar to run against him again.

Last week, Issa announced he would retire from Congress, endorsing Republican Jim Desmond on his way out. In response, Campa-Najjar said in a news release: “While I’m glad Darrell Issa will no longer represent CA-48, we cannot exchange one MAGA rubber stamp for another this November.”

“This country’s going in a different direction, and so I felt very compelled by the moment,” Campa-Najjar told NOTUS last month. “If I’m going to try to prove what I believe about this country, this is my last chance to try to stand in the breach and do something about it.”

Not everyone is as enthusiastic about his run. Campa-Najjar has several endorsements from members of Congress, including his girlfriend, Rep. Sara Jacobs, and he’s the top fundraiser in the race. But state and local Democrats are not lining up behind him in quite the same way.

In late February, thousands of members of the California Democratic Party gathered in San Francisco for the state party’s annual convention. Their main purpose: to organize ahead of the midterms after voters in the state overwhelmingly passed Proposition 50, solidifying Democrats’ advantage in congressional races, and to endorse Democratic candidates. In 2018 and 2020, Campa-Najjar easily landed the party’s endorsement.

This year, the California Democratic Party did not endorse anyone in the primary, which will take place in June. Of the 33 delegates who voted in California’s new 48th district, only about 18% voted to endorse Campa-Najjar, compared to 55% for San Diego City Councilwoman Marni Von Wilpert, who had just shy of the 60% threshold needed to obtain the full party’s backing.

The results were not surprising. Campa-Najjar has faced accusations of opportunism and changing his positions based on political headwinds. In mid-January, he attended the party’s pre-endorsement conference with the hopes of convincing local Democrats to support him. But ahead of that meeting, five California Democrats sent a letter to state delegates urging them not to support Campa-Najjar.

“With Prop 50 now law, Democrats finally have a chance to win California’s 48th Congressional District and take back the House from Trump. But that depends on nominating a credible, electable candidate Democrats can unify behind. Ammar Campa-Najjar is not that candidate,” the Democrats wrote in the letter, which was obtained by NOTUS.

“Ammar’s repeated defeats have compounded a troubling pattern: a lack of clear principles Democrats can unite behind and a tendency to tell different groups whatever they want to hear,” the letter continued. “These positions will define Ammar again in 2026 — undermining his credibility with all voters, let alone Democrats.”

The letter’s authors pointed to his past positions on guns. Campa-Najjar said in 2020 that he was opposed to banning assault rifles: “I don’t believe in banning so-called ‘assault weapons.’ First of all, that’s a term that was coined by liberals who know nothing about guns.”

“I don’t believe that we should have an assault weapons ban. I just don’t think it would work and it would just give criminals an advantage over the rest of us law-abiding people,” he added. “That’s where I break ranks with my own party.”

At a candidate forum this past September, for which NOTUS obtained audio, Campa-Najjar said, “I firmly believe” in California’s current assault weapons ban.

“On a military base, I can’t bring a personal firearm on a military base, so why can we be allowed to take military firearms into civilian hands?” he said. “We shouldn’t be able to do that. The military has stricter gun rules than our country does.”

The Democrats who signed the letter also took issue with past comments he made to Defend East County, a far-right group in Southern California that has since disbanded. There, he said that Amy Coney Barrett, at the time a nominee to the Supreme Court, “was very qualified” and that he would “probably” have voted to confirm her had he been in the Senate. Barrett’s confirmation as a justice ultimately gave the court the conservative supermajority that overturned Roe v. Wade.

At the pre-endorsement conference, Campa-Najjar said that “as your next congressman if I’m honored to be that person … it looks like introducing an amendment to codify Roe v. Wade to protect a woman’s freedom and right to choose.”

But the damage was done. At the conference, he obtained the support of only 14.29% of the 77 delegates who voted. Von Wilpert won a whopping 68.83%.

Campa-Najjar downplayed those results. In a lengthy interview with NOTUS in early February, the Democratic candidate called the state party’s endorsement “a nice to have, but not a need to have.”

“This is not going to get won by the party’s brand blessing,” he told NOTUS. “The party’s brand, with all due respect, is not what’s going to get us to the promised land in any of these districts. It’s still a party that’s trying to figure us out.”

He touted the growing number of endorsements he’s received from members of Congress. So far, he’s gained the support of 20 House Democrats, including Jacobs, and two congressional PACs, the campaign arms of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus. One Democratic strategist involved in California races, but not in the CA-48 primary, told NOTUS it was unusual to see that many endorsements.

“I’m just surprised so many politicians are taking sides in that race. … That’s an interesting element,” said the strategist, who was granted anonymity to speak freely.

“The members of Congress who know what it takes, they want me to be here and be their colleague,” Campa-Najjar told NOTUS. The delegates in the pre-endorsement conference, he said, are “a group of activists, 80 of them” that do not “speak on behalf of 800,000” people.

He says now that he regrets what he sees as a hard pivot to the right in 2020, after running as a more traditional Democrat in 2018.

“That outreach, in that moment, became an overreaching,” he said.

“I went too far,” Campa-Najjar continued. “What I realized is that if you stoop to their level, they don’t respect you, and you lose your own respect.”

After losing the Chula Vista mayoral race, Campa-Najjar said he was “done with politics.”

“I was done. I was done and not, like, depressed. I’m like, ‘Maybe I could help Sara, give her advice. I have a lot of friends who are members. I don’t have to be the one getting the shrapnel,’ ” he continued.

He joined the U.S. Navy in August 2023 through its direct commission program — he got in the third time he applied — and trained in the Philippines in 2024, which he called “the thing I’m most proud of.” He was set to start a master’s program in conflict resolution at Georgetown University this past fall, but then California state officials began efforts to redraw the state’s congressional districts.

In early August, Campa-Najjar attended an event held by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee in Torrey Pines as a guest of Jacobs. (The DCCC has not taken a position in his primary.) There, Campa-Najjar recalled, Rep. Mike Levin urged him to run for Congress in 2026.

“He’s like, ‘You need to run again,’ ” Campa-Najjar said. He then talked to Rep. Scott Peters, who, he said, also encouraged him to run, “and even Sara was like, ‘If you’re going to do it, you need to announce now.’ ”

Campa-Najjar insisted he was “super, super not planning” to run again, explaining that he had become a Navy officer and was planning to start his graduate studies at Georgetown last fall: “If there’s any indication I was not planning this s— at all, it’s all of this.”

“In what world is this district that I ran in, almost won, now suddenly become a winnable district?” he continued, saying he could never have foreseen California’s mid-decade redistricting.

Levin, who has endorsed Campa-Najjar, told NOTUS that he has as good a shot as ever to win.

“I did tell him that I thought he had worked really hard in his first couple of congressional races, and he had outperformed the top of the ticket in both of those races.” (In 2020, Campa-Najjar got 46% of the vote in California’s 50th district, compared to the 45% received by President Joe Biden.)

“So long as he outperforms again, he’ll win,” Levin added.

Just a few weeks later, Campa-Najjar announced his run for California’s new 48th Congressional District, which was set to become bluer if Proposition 50 passed in the November elections.

A news release announcing his candidacy touted his “strong early support” from House Democrats, including Reps. Veronica Escobar, Derek Tran, Steven Horsford and Dave Min.

However, after voters overwhelmingly approved Prop. 50, Min quietly withdrew his endorsement.

Campa-Najjar “jumped right before Prop 50, and I told him, ‘I’m happy to endorse you for this district, but if it changes and Prop 50 goes through, then I’m going to have to pull out.’ He knew that going in,” Min told NOTUS. He said that he has “friends” in the race, naming Von Wilpert and businessman Brandon Riker, “so at this point, I’m staying out.”

California has non-partisan, or jungle primaries, meaning the top two vote-getters are on the ballot in November. Between Issa getting out of the race and redistricting, it’s possible two Democrats could face off against each other in the fall.

“When redistricting looked like it might happen, I was like, I’ll need to take a beat to figure out, you know, which candidates are going to run, who’s serious, and all that. I’m still evaluating,” Min added. Campa-Najjar’s campaign said in a statement that Min’s un-endorsement was “not a surprise and there are no hard feelings.”

Several House Democrats, including some who endorsed Campa-Najjar, told NOTUS that Jacobs has not explicitly urged her colleagues to endorse her boyfriend. However, some said that when a colleague’s loved one is running for office, it puts members in a tough spot — and that’s happening with Campa-Najjar.

One House Democrat, who was granted anonymity to speak candidly, compared the situation to Rep. Pramila Jayapal’s sister, Susheela Jayapal, running for Congress in 2024: “It’s just awkward as f—.”

“Let’s say you want to endorse someone else on the race. OK, well, now you also have to think about your colleague, right?” another House Democrat said.

Lauren McIlvaine, a spokesperson for Jacobs, told NOTUS in a statement: “This is a unique but not unprecedented situation and Rep. Jacobs has gone out of her way to make her colleagues feel comfortable. She hasn’t asked her colleagues for endorsements; in fact, she explicitly told them not to endorse because of her, so there’s no ambiguity, pressure, or sense of obligation.

“Some of the congresswoman’s close friends have endorsed others in the race, which hasn’t affected their personal or professional relationships at all. Last year, she told her colleagues at the weekly California Democratic Congressional Delegation lunch that she should not be a factor in their CA-48 endorsement calculations. She’s had similar conversations with other Members one-on-one,” McIlvaine added.

After NOTUS asked Jacobs’ team for comment, other congressional offices reached out to offer statements. Rep. Mike Thompson, who has not endorsed anyone in the CA-48 race, said in a statement that Jacobs “never pressured me nor do I know of any other colleagues being pressured on endorsement decisions. She even went so far as to stand up at one of our meetings to urge us clearly and in no uncertain terms to make our decisions without any consideration of her at all.”

But Jacobs and her family have significantly boosted Campa-Najjar’s candidacy.

According to campaign finance records, the Jacobs family has donated at least $66,500 to his campaign as of September 2025, making up about 8% of Campa-Najjar’s total reported contributions — though his campaign said that since December, contributions have reached $1 million.

The Jacobs family has donated more to this campaign than they have in the past: They donated over $30,000 to his 2018 campaign and over $40,000 to his 2020 run, according to a NOTUS analysis of campaign finance records. (The 2018 and 2020 cycle donations were dated before Campa-Najjar and Jacobs’ relationship was first publicly reported.)

McIlvaine said Jacobs “and her family have long been generous to Democrats across the country, particularly those running in San Diego. Her family has a similar giving history with the other San Diego Democrats.”

Campa-Najjar leads his Democratic primary opponents in endorsements from federal lawmakers. Seven House Democrats and one congressional PAC — the campaign arm of the Congressional Equality Caucus — have officially endorsed Von Wilpert; and one House Democrat, Rep. Ro Khanna, and one senator, Sen. Peter Welch, are backing Riker.

Von Wilpert, who has emerged as Campa-Najjar’s top Democratic opponent, has over a dozen current local and state elected officials and 10 former officials endorsing her in the race. By comparison, Campa-Najjar has two local elected officials backing him.

“We are seeing the Democratic momentum coming in for me and the people who know this district best, know the candidates are supporting me,” Von Wilpert told NOTUS. “We are building momentum, and there’s a reason: I’ve won competitive elections and I’ve governed.”

Andi McNew, Campa-Najjar’s campaign manager, said in a statement that “Ammar has earned the support of 11+ California House Democrats, unions, VoteVets, CHC BOLD PAC and others on the merits of this campaign and his demonstrated ability to win this district. We’re proud of that coalition and focused on growing it.”

For Campa-Najjar, this race is a way to return to who he was as a young, first-time candidate eight years ago.

“I feel aligned with myself … and now I’m kind of bringing it back.” He said that his campaign team includes a lot of the 2018 crew, which he called “successful.” His first race, after all, was the one he got closest to winning.

“I want to have a campaign that you’d be proud of, and I think if we replicate that, we’ll win this race,” he said. “To me, it’s like doing the best I can to meet this moment.”

Last month, before announcing he was not seeking reelection, Issa said that he enjoyed watching from the sidelines as the race continued to take shape.

“It’s fun to watch,” Issa told NOTUS, “including one of the candidates that ran as almost a Republican in 2020 now going back to his roots of being an extreme left-winger.”

Campa-Najjar, Issa said, has the benefit that he does not have a voting record. “My record is what I’ve done and what I’ve championed and the bills that I’ve authored. When you don’t, I guess you can move back and forth and try not to be pinned down.”

“Ammar is an interesting character,” Issa added.

This story was produced as part of a partnership between NOTUS — a publication from the nonpartisan Allbritton Journalism Institute — and NEWSWELL, home of Times of San Diego, Santa Barbara News-Press and Stocktonia. 

Hence then, the article about perennial candidate ammar campa najjar believes he can finally win an election with new bid for ca 48 was published today ( Monday 09/03/2026 - 07:48 PM ) and is available on Times of San Diego ( Middle East ) The editorial team at PressBee has edited and verified it, and it may have been modified, fully republished, or quoted. You can read and follow the updates of this news or article from its original source.

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