Democrat Campa-Najjar easily tops CA48 poll as Indivisible forum splits on remap

Democrat Ammar Campa-Najjar took part Sunday in his first congressional debate since 2020 and said he had a “fresh arm, ready to pitch” in a redrawn 48th District.

The Navy Reserve officer also hit a home run with viewers of an online forum hosted by Indivisible North County San Diego, who quizzed candidates seeking to replace Republican Rep. Darrell Issa.

A straw poll held after the 100-minute event saw Campa-Najjar favored by 59 people (70%), well ahead of tech consultant Brian Nash (13 votes or 15%), abortion rights activist Whitney Shanahan (7 votes or 8%) and immigration lawyer Curtis Morrison (5 votes or 6%).

Three official candidates were no-shows — Suzanne Till and Albert Mora (both having announced they had dropped out of the race) and Nicholas Davis (who hasn’t been reachable). Campa-Najjar has yet to be listed on the FEC website as a candidate but has formed an exploratory committee.

Podcaster Allison Gill — known for her “Mueller, She Wrote” social media presence — asked questions up-voted in the Crowdcast audience of 356 participants. She added follow-ups.

The biggest split was over Gov. Gavin Newsom’s plan to counter Texas redistricting efforts favoring the GOP with Proposition 50, a November ballot issue that would redraw California congressional maps to advantage Democrats.

Two-time Congress candidate Campa-Najjar, who has said he’d be on the ballot “if the proposed maps are approved,” began by saying “No Democrat wants this. We want an independent [remap] commission.” But he pointed to Red States “gerrymandering the living daylights out of their districts.”

For now, he said, “we have to fight fire with fire. We can’t unilaterally disarm. … Deterrence has not worked. So we have to deploy the nuclear option. … We didn’t want it, but we fully support it.”

He said he has “talked to the governor” with the goal of passing the new maps amid stiff opposition from former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, local Assemblyman Carl DeMaio and former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

“But I am confident Donald Trump will insert himself in this fight — like he did in the [Newsom] recall — and it’ll be a blowout,” Campa-Najjar said, adding that he’ll use the “turnout machine” of his campaign to get people to vote in November.

He depicted the effort in training terms — “It’s a very good set and rep and dry run for what we will have to do” against Issa.

Moderator Gill asked Campa-Najjar if he’d live in the new district. (In the wake of his 2022 loss in the Chula Vista mayor’s race, he’s been registered to vote from a home on Marlborough Drive in Kensington Heights overlooking Mission Valley.)

He said his current home wouldn’t be in the new district. The other hopefuls said theirs wouldn’t either — although Congress candidates need only live in the state they represent.

Nash said he didn’t support the remap, after pointing out that 23 of 28 states in GOP hands are totally controlled by Republicans.

He called Prop. 50 “fascist” and said: “You don’t fight fascism with fascism. . . . I don’t see this as a winnable solution. … My concern is that we continue to circle the drain . . . and this thing that everyone seems to be clinging to as the solution to all of our problems is going to make things exponentially worse.”

Instead, Nash backs a plan by GOP Rep. Kevin Kiley for a nationwide ban on mid-decade redistricting.

• Listen: Questions posed to four Democratic candidates in the 48th District
• Listen: Closing statements from Campa-Najjar, Morrison, Nash and Shanahan

Morever, Nash said the public should be talking about California seceding from the United States (and thus take all its tax revenues with it).

“That is a path that actually works out for every citizen in California,” said Nash at the event held more than nine months aheads of the June 2026 primary (with a field that could include Coachella Valley candidates and possibly San Diego Councilwoman Marni von Wilpert).

Morrison said he’s resistent to Prop. 50.

“The governor didn’t have a conversation with me — like he did with Ammar — on the benefits of this map,” he said. “That’s why I’m not calling it ‘our plan.’ . … I just don’t want the oxygen and the resources . . . next year to be drained instead on this referendum in November.”

Asked by Gill whether he would campaign against Prop. 50, Morrison said he respected pro-Prop. 50 people, “and I’m going to … sit it out until I’m convinced it’s the right thing to do.”

Shanahan, who has a large social media following, said she backs Prop. 50.

“We need to do absolutely everything we can to fight back against the Trump administration,” she said, calling the measure “a creative avenue” to “stop the loss of our basic rights.”

Saying she’s already used her platforms to boost Prop. 50, Shanahan added: “Finally, we got something that we can do. We’ve got to mobilize and hold the line.” (She also said she’d move from Fallbrook into the new district if the maps are approved.)

Gill asked all four how they’d persuade Republicans in the 48th District to vote for a Democrat.

Campa-Najjar, whose appearance five years ago on a right-wing Defend East County show drew widespread derision, said: “Do not make the mistakes I made.”

“You don’t have to endorse someone’s views to engage them,” he said. “You can have empathy without agreeing. It’s very important that when you’re trying to find common ground, you stand your ground.”

And speaking from a place of “hard-learned and hard-earned wisdom,” he said Democrats should “outreach” but not “overreach.”

He also said Trump policies are disproportionately hurting Republican areas.

“The impulse among Democrats is to say, ‘I told you so,’ but we have to take the high ground … We’re a big tent and you belong in our tent,” Campa-Najjar said. “It’s important to be self-critical as Democrats.”

Nash said candidates should be focusing on independents.

“Politicians need to be believable, first and foremost,” he said. “And that’s one of the things that I bring to this race. … I am going to give you my view on something and give you the reasons why I got there.”

Nash decried “basic answers for a sound-bite age — because the world is more complex than that.”

He also said Trump voters are more likely to make the leap from Republican to nonvoter than to Democrat. “You’re going to get somebody to vote for the opposite party over their cold dead hands.”

On the issue of seeking GOP support, Morrison agreed with “a lot of good ideas” by Nash,

Morrison said: “Changing Republicans’ minds — that’s down the totem pole. That’s the last thing we need to do. It will have the least amount of return” on investment.

Ohio native Shanahan said she was raised “very conservative, very Republican,” but “came out the other side.”

So when she talks to independents, conservatives or Republicans, “I come from the point that there is way more that we are united on than what divides us. … Finding just the authentic truth of how we can move forward, I’ve found massive, massive success.”

Shanahan asserted that, via social media, she’s helped persuade “thousands and thousands” of pro-life people that “abortion is a human right.”

On Monday, Times of San Diego asked all candidates their reaction to the poll result (albeit with only a quarter of viewers responding). Two responded.

Morrison said: “Ammar did a great job — no question. Should Prop. 50 pass, and he decides to file as a candidate with the FEC, there’s no question he’ll be a formidable candidate.”

Nash bashed Campa-Najjar in a long reply, saying poll respondents have short memories and need to be reminded that Campa-Najjar hung out with “right-wing lunatics. It’s on video for all to see” and propped up Trump in the same video “in an effort to connect with said right-wing lunatics. … This was a calculated decision, one he has to live with forever.”

Nash called Morrison and Shanahan “empathetic, kind individuals who each bring something unique, and electable, to the table. If I were elected, I would ask to lean on them both for their expertise in their given areas.”

“I cannot, in good conscience, do the same with Ammar,” Nash said. “Voters, including me, are sick and tired of candidates that have morals made of putty.”