{"id":556963,"date":"2026-01-31T19:34:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-31T19:34:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/556963\/"},"modified":"2026-01-31T19:34:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-31T19:34:10","slug":"local-dems-soften-on-campa-najjar-favor-von-wilpert-in-high-profile-issa-challenge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/556963\/","title":{"rendered":"Local Dems soften on Campa-Najjar, favor von Wilpert in high-profile Issa challenge"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"City<\/a>Councilmember Marni von Wilpert in 2020. (File photo by Chris Stone\/Times of San Diego)<\/p>\n

San Diego Councilmember Marni von Wilpert has taken the early lead<\/a> among Democrats in one of the most-watched congressional contests in the country.<\/p>\n

The race to unseat Rep. Darrell Issa in the 48th District heated up markedly after California\u2019s passage of Proposition 50<\/a>, Gov. Gavin Newsom\u2019s answer to district gerrymandering in Texas.<\/p>\n

Von Wilpert finished with 68.8% of the local vote in the party\u2019s pre-endorsement returns, followed by Ammar Campa-Najjar with 14.3% and Brandon Riker with 10.4%.<\/p>\n

The two-term councilmember came up just shy of the 70% threshold required to secure the nod.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The vote, though, could signal an end to Campa-Najjar\u2019s tenure as a perennial party favorite in high-profile races, though he downplayed the results.<\/p>\n

Campa-Najjar is 0-3 in those races, dating back to 2018, when he surged to take 97% of his party\u2019s pre-endorsement vote on his way to a general election loss to former Rep. Duncan D. Hunter in the 50th District contest.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

He fell to Issa again two years later, when, as the only Democrat in the race he easily secured the endorsement. But he tacked to the right in an effort to secure votes in the conservative 50th District, a decision on messaging that has drawn criticism in progressive circles.<\/p>\n

He shifted to local politics in 2022, running for Chula Vista mayor. He failed to secure San Diego Democrats \u2018endorsement in the primary, but the party threw its support behind him when he advanced to the general election. He lost to Republican John McCann that November.<\/p>\n

The party\u2019s endorsement won\u2019t be finalized until the Democrats\u2019 state convention, which begins Feb. 20 in the Bay Area, and could still go in another direction. Von Wilpert, Campa-Najjar, Riker and nine other Democrats are vying for the right to challenge Issa. Only one other candidate, Abel Chavez, received a pre-endorsement vote. Four voters chose the no endorsement\/no preference option. <\/p>\n

Campa-Najjar does not see the party endorsing anyone in the 48th District race, saying he believes delegates to the state convention will look at the field and decide they \u201clike you all, let the voters decide.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m going to work very hard to earn the support of the party,\u201d he said, while pointing to his
fundraising, endorsements and voter outreach. \u201cIn the end, we have to be united to take on Darrell Issa.\u201d<\/p>\n

Von Wilpert described the pre-endorsement vote in her favor as a show of unity and momentum. <\/p>\n

\u201cDemocrats want a candidate with values that don\u2019t waver from election to election, and a proven record of beating the Republicans who rubber stamp Trump\u2019s agenda \u2014 and that\u2019s exactly what I\u2019m ready to do,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

READ NEXT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Councilmember Marni von Wilpert in 2020. (File photo by Chris Stone\/Times of San Diego) San Diego Councilmember Marni…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":556964,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5134],"tags":[243616,5229,110507,1582,276,32566,7330,93113,3549,7264,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":["post-556963","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-48th-congressional-district","tag-america","tag-ammar-campa-najjar","tag-ca","tag-california","tag-california-democrats","tag-darrell-issa","tag-marni-von-wilpert","tag-san-diego","tag-sandiego","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115991390810703853","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556963","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=556963"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556963\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/556964"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=556963"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=556963"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=556963"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}