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A flood of cash from a San Diego heiress and her billionaire family couldn’t save Democrat Ammar Campa-Najjar from another mortifying election defeat — after he won just 10% of the vote in a key primary contest.
Campa-Najjar bowed out of the congressional primary in California’s 48th district, representing East San Diego, after an abysmal third-place showing put him behind Republican Jim Desmond and fellow Democrat Marni Von Wilpert, who won 42% and 20% of the vote, respectively.
San Diego Rep. Sara Jacobs’ billionaire grandfather, Qualcomm founder Irwin Jacobs, had poured at least $800,000 into Campa-Najjar’s doomed congressional bid. It marked his fourth election loss in a row after members of the wealthy Jacobs clanbankrolled his two prior runsfor Congress and one failed bid for mayor of Chula Vista.
Campa-Najjar, aNaval Reserve officerand grandson of a Palestinian militant, blamed his defeat on “outside and foreign influences.”
“While my political career is permanently over, I’m deeply grateful to the voters and supporters who let me into their lives and enriched mine,” he said ina statement.
The Jacobs family have spent more than $200,000 onCampa-Najjar’s failed campaigns,which were tainted by bizarre political flip-flops.Campa-Najjar has worked as a self-described “consultant” and has dated Jacobs since approximately 2019, according to media reports.
He first ran for Congress as a Bernie Sanders-style progressive in 2018 before embracing MAGA positions like opposition to gun control in his subsequent 2020 race.
He then ran for mayor of Chula Vista in 2022 and lost to Republican John McCann in the heavily Democratic city before enlisting in the Naval Reserve the following year.
Campa-Najjar took heat for allegedly abusing his military status in campaign materials, even posting a glamour shot of himself saluting at a deceased veteran’s grave on Memorial Day last year in a move vets called disrespectful.
Source: California Post – Breaking California News, Photos & Videos
