Ammar Campa-Najjar (born February 24, 1989) is a United States naval officer, politician, and former official at the United States Department of Labor. Campa-Najjar has twice been a candidate for the United States House of Representatives. He lost in the 2018 election against incumbent Duncan D. Hunter. Campa-Najjar lost again in a 2020 campaign to represent California's 50th congressional district, which encompasses the northeastern segments of San Diego County, and a small section of Riverside County. In 2022, he unsuccessfully ran for the position of Mayor of Chula Vista, California. In 2023, he was sworn in as an officer in the United States Navy.
Early life and education
Campa-Najjar was born in La Mesa, California, and raised in Jamul and Chula Vista, California. His father, Yasser Najjar, is Palestinian, and his mother, Abigail Campa, is Mexican American. In 1997, when he was eight years old, he and his family moved to the Gaza Strip. In 1998, he attended a Catholic school in the Gaza Strip. After living in Gaza for four years, he, his mother, and brother moved back to San Diego County. He said he was not "Arab enough in Gaza, Latino enough for the barrio, or American enough in my own country." When he was 15, he worked as a janitor to help his single mother pay bills.
While in high school, Campa-Najjar converted from Islam to Christianity. He considers himself to be Latino and Arab-American, and is fluent in English, Spanish, and Arabic.
He attended community college at Southwestern College, and earned a dual Bachelor of Arts degree in Philosophy and Psychology from San Diego State University.
Family
Campa-Najjar's father Yasser Najjar is Palestinian and his mother Abigail Campa is Mexican American. His mother is a practicing Catholic. Following the killing of Campa-Najjar's father's parents by Israeli commandos for his grandfather Abu Najjar's involvement in Black September and alleged role in the 1972 Munich Massacre, Campa-Najjar's father Yasser Najjar and his siblings were sent to Cairo by King Hassan II of Morocco. The siblings were separated over the following years with Yasser attending school in England before immigrating to the US and obtaining American citizenship. He moved to San Diego in 1981 and earned an MBA from San Diego State University. Abigail Campa grew up in the Logan Heights neighborhood of San Diego, and she and Yasser married in the 1980s. In 1994, Yasser traveled to Gaza to work for the newly legitimized Palestinian National Authority and explore his family's roots. While working for the PNA he was seen as a moderate who advocated for peace. In his later years Yasser Najjar was an important internal critic of Palestinian hardliners. During his time in Gaza he attempted to counteract the rising influence of Hamas.
Campa-Najjar's grandfather Muhammad Youssef al-Najjar, known as "Abu Youssef", has been the subject of significant controversy. In 1965, while working in Kuwait, Abu Youssef founded Fatah along with Yasser Arafat and other exiled Palestinians. He was long believed to have been affiliated with the Munich massacre. He was among those targeted in Mossad assassinations following the Munich massacre. On April 9, 1973 al-Najjar and his wife were killed in their Beirut, Lebanon apartment in Israeli raid on Lebanon. The attack occurred while their children were home. The Israeli commando team was led by future Prime Minister Ehud Barak. Campa-Najjar and Barak met in Washington, D.C. in October 2019.
In February 2018, a book published by Ronen Bergman, Rise and Kill First, challenged the historical assumption that those targeted in Operation Wrath of God were actually behind the Munich massacre. In 2019 in response to this new information, Campa-Najjar withdrew some of the condemnations he had made against his grandfather.
Career
Campa-Najjar worked as a deputy regional field director for the Barack Obama 2012 presidential campaign. During the Obama Administration, Campa-Najjar was a White House intern and worked in the Labor Department's Office of Public Affairs for the Employment and Training Administration. As a White House intern, his clerical responsibilities included reading and helping select letters that President Obama would read each day.