Harris endorses Democrat in tight California House race

Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) on Tuesday endorsed Ammar Campa-Najjar, the Democrat running in the tight House race in California’s 50th Congressional District. 

“I’m proud to endorse Ammar Campa-Najjar for Congress. He represents the next generation of leadership our country yearns for,” she said in a statement to The Hill. “As the son of a single working-class Latina who worked as a church janitor to support his family as a young man, Ammar understands the struggles too many working families are facing today.”

“I’m confident Ammar has the experience and character to serve the people of CA50 in California.” 

The endorsement comes in the home stretch of a tight race in the San Diego-area seat, which will pit Campa-Najjar against former Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.). An internal poll conducted for the Campa-Najjar campaign showed Issa with a 47 percent to 43 percent  lead among likely voters, a difference that falls within the poll’s margin of error.

Campa-Najjar, who lost the House race in the same district in 2018 by 3 points to scandal-plagued former Rep. Duncan Hunter (R), also got the endorsement of Barack Obama Monday as part of the former president’s first wave of endorsements.

“The stakes couldn’t be higher this November, as our district has struggled through a public health and economic crisis without a Congressman this past year,” Campa-Najjar told The Hill, referring to the vacant seat left by Hunter’s resignation in January. “This endorsement raises the profile of a community that has long been forgotten by Washington, and for that I’m grateful.”

Campa-Najjar is hinging his campaign on a message of change, noting the district’s last lawmaker brought negative headlines over campaign finance violations and underscoring Issa’s past leadership of Republican investigations into the Obama administration.

Still, Issa is expected to run a strong campaign in his bid to replace Hunter — he has a vast personal fortune from his founding of the Viper car alarm system and holds high name recognition from his time as the chair of the House Oversight and Reform Committee. The district has also not voted for a Democrat since its lines were redrawn in 2002. 

The internal poll from the Campa-Najjar campaign surveyed 400 likely voters from July 22-26 and has a margin of error of 4.9 percent.