In anticipation of a redrawn congressional district map aimed at shifting five U.S. House seats to Democrats, Ammar Campa-Najjar has announced that he will run again for the East County district seat he lost to incumbent Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Bonsall, in 2020.
State lawmakers voted Thursday to put the newly proposed California congressional map — a direct counter to legislative redistricting efforts in Texas to increase the number of GOP House seats there — before voters in a Nov. 4 special election.
"This campaign is about making sure that all families, from San Diego to Riverside, have a representative who works for them," Campa-Najjar said in a statement released Friday. "That's why I've officially filed to run in CA- 48. If the proposed maps are approved, I'll be on the ballot, ready to represent this community and fight for a fair economy, affordable health care, and take on corruption."
Efforts to reach Issa for a comment were not immediately successful.
Campa-Najjar, a former U.S. Department of Labor official, educator and U.S. Navy officer, also lost a House election to Republican Duncan D. Hunter in 2018 and a Chula Vista mayoral race to John McCann in 2022.
The District in question encompasses the central and eastern parts of San Diego County and part of southwestern Riverside County, including the communities of Alpine, Bonsall, Borrego Springs, portions of El Cajon, Campo, Escondido, Fallbrook, Lakeside, Murrieta, Poway, Ramona, Rancho San Diego, Santee, Temecula, Valley Center, the mountain and desert areas of the San Diego- Imperial County line, and most of the San Diego-Mexico international border.
The new district would add San Marcos and Escondido, two purple battleground cities that Campa-Najjar previously carried.
Five other Democratic challengers to Issa are listed as candidates on the Federal Election Commission website: Nicholas Davis, Albert James Mora, Curtis Morrison, Brian Nash and Whitney Shanahan.
Proposition 50 — also known as the Election Rigging Response Act — is an attempt to negate the Texas legislature's effort to flip five congressional districts to the GOP side through a redrawn map. That effort passed the Texas House of Representatives the state's Senate this week and Gov. Greg Abbott on Saturday promised to quickly sign off.
"One Big Beautiful Map has passed the Senate and is on its way to my desk, where it will be swiftly signed into law," Abbott said in a statement.
California's move, led by Gov. Gavin Newsom, would override the state's independent redistricting commission that is typically responsible for drawing district maps.
Republican leaders said the November election is expected to cost California taxpayers approximately $250 million.
