“It feels like I never left,” said Ammar Campa-Najjar as he walked through what he called “memory lane” of Southwestern College’s halls. Campa-Najjar is running for California’s 50th Congressional District. He is also a Southwestern College alumnus.
Campa-Najjar received a 97 percent party vote in the Democratic pre-endorsement process in February to secure the Democratic endorsement for California’s 50th Congressional District primary in June. He will face incumbent Duncan Hunter, the Republican who has held the position since 2009.
“I’m the first Mexican-Palestinian-American Millennial ever to get” the California Democratic Party endorsement, he said with a grin.
Campa-Najjar said he is a proud Democrat, but emphasized his bipartisan approach to public policy.
“I’m trying to depoliticize politics,” he said.
The 50th district encompasses most of San Diego’s East County and reaches north into Temecula in Riverside County. It has been historically a staunchly Republican stronghold populated by conservative white voters.
“It’s changing though,” said Campa-Najjar, refering to demographic changes that are pushing more democratic voters into the district.
Communities historically occupied by people of color, like Barrio Logan and Chula Vista, are becoming more expensive due to gentrification, he said. Chula Vista’s average rent has risen by $500 from 2011 to 2018. As a result, single mothers, newly weds, Latinx families and young people are moving east to live in bigger homes for less money.
“Think about those demographics, young people, mixed families and single moms,” he said. “They’re all Democrats.”
Campa-Najjar said he hopes to bridge America’s political chasms.
“There still is a lot of conservative thinking, but I don’t look at it that way,” he said.
“I don’t talk about people’s personal politics. I talk about their personal health, their personal safety, their personal finances.”
Campa-Najjar’s said his top three issues are jobs, immigration and healthcare. An example of a bipartisan bill supported by the Campa-Najjar campaign is the modification of the Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act, which passed in 2013, but was never introduced to the House of Representatives. Protecting DACA recipients is another priority.
“Whenever I talk about things, I explain them from the frame of the person who disagrees with it,” he said. “Instead of saying ‘you’re wrong,’ I try to say ‘I might share your value but how do we get there?’”
Campa-Najjar uses this method to discuss controversial topics like abortion, gun control and immigration.
“If we can make it about public service and coming together, I think we can do it,” he said.
Southwestern College was the place Campa-Najjar developed his interest in public service, he said.
“After each class, me and my group of friends would just sit and talk for an hour or two,” he said. I’d be smoking cigars and talking about philosophy. I just really found myself the leader of those discussions.”
Southwestern College faculty influenced his interest in political thinking and active civic engagement, he said.
“I felt like I was able to sway opinion and influence other people’s thinking,” he said. “Not just because I was a good student, but, I think that I coupled my academic experience with my lived experience.”
Campa-Najjar was born in East County and raised by his single, working mother. He lived in Gaza from the age of nine, until 12 years old.
“Living in the Middle East, seeing war, and seeing really tough conditions (was illuminating),” he said. “My mom raising me on her own, and what that meant (effected my) learning about economic injustice, social injustice and how politics can be a vehicle to create a level playing field. I built an intellectual framework from those experiences. I think this school really matured my thinking on how to use politics to impact the public.”
After SWC, Campa-Najjar attended SDSU. He served as a field director for Barack Obama’s 2012 presidential campaign while he was still in his early 20s. His work on the campaign managed to reach across state lines and turn out voters in neighboring states. Campaigning for Obama is where he cultivated more political experience and met people who are now colleagues.
“Most of us 2012 volunteers knew he was going to run at some point,” said Katie Meyer, Field Director of the Ammar Campa for Congress Campaign. “Because of his ability to tell his story, his passion, his work ethic, we knew that he was going to run.”
Meyer said she has known Campa-Najjar since she was 16.
She was phone-banking for Obama’s campaign during high school when she met him.
Meyer said she wanted to support Campa-Najjar when he announced his campaign though said she “was shocked” that he chose to run for Congress against Hunter instead of a local office first.
“But I remember everything we were able to accomplish in 2012, all the energy behind the campaign and what he was able to do,” she said.
The Campa-Najjar campaign team includes a Dreamer, LGBTQ people, veterans, young people new to politics and self proclaimed “rednecks,” he said. “It’s as diverse as the country that I’m hoping to serve, it’s incredible.”
Campa-Najjar said he has been working to build relationships with East County Native American bands, who are often overlooked by all political parties. He is also reaching out to veterans. He said he has personal understanding of both groups.
“I think being Palestinian-American I have a connection with Native Americans on certain levels, with the whole idea of displacement,” he said.
Campa-Najjar said he would like to bring a project like Elon Musk’s Space-X to the district and ensure 30 percent of jobs go to Native Americans, in which 30 percent of whom still live in poverty.
Though he is running against three veterans, Campa-Najjar said he finds common ground with them.
“I didn’t choose to live in a warzone when I lived in Gaza,” he said, “but that gave me a bond with veterans that I can’t explain. War changes you.”
Improving veteran reintegration resources such as mental health care, wrap-around services, vocational training and housing assistance is another priority, he said.
During Campa-Najjar’s White House internship he said he read thousands of letters addressed to Obama which he said put him on “the fast track to internalize the voice of the American people all around the country, not just in the places I grew up.”
Helping America is simpler than most may realize, he said.
“We have to invest in people,” he said. “I think in all these things, injustice economic and socially, it comes down to making sure people who have been very successful are not avoiding the obligation they have to the very country that made their success possible.”
