California Republican Representative Duncan Hunter, who is facing a 48-page federal indictment for campaign fraud, is so afraid of losing his cushy seat in the House of Representatives to Democrat Ammar Campa-Najjar that he is resorting to conspiracy theories.
He is masking Campa-Najjar as a terrorist tasked with infiltrating the U.S. government.
In a recent ad, Hunter said, “He changed his name from Ammar Yasser Najjar to Ammar Campa-Najjar so he sounds Hispanic. … So his signs could actually say Joseph Campa or, or something. That is how hard, by the way, that the radical Muslims are trying to infiltrate the U.S. government. You had more Islamists run for office this year at the federal level than ever before in U.S. history.”
Campa-Najjar said, “It’s become so pervasive and prevalent, and it’s reached the point of absurdity, when a non-Muslim is on the receiving end of Islamophobia.”
He is a former White House official under President Barack Obama. His role required a high level security clearance and he underwent extensive federal vetting.
The ad highlights Campa-Najja’s paternal grandfather—a senior member of the Black September group responsible for the 1972 massacre at the Munich Olympics.
Campa-Najjar condemned the Munich attacks. His grandfather Abu Yusuf was “one of the architects of the Munich massacre,” but he was later killed by the Israeli commandos in retaliation for the attacks 16 years before Campa-Najjar was even born.
Campa-Najjar’s name change happened years before this House race in California. He was given the name Ammar Yasser Najjar at birth but changed it to Campa-Najjar in order to honor his mother’s family, the Campas, who helped raise him. He later dropped his middle name (his father’s first name) and replaced it with Joseph as he was estranged from his father for a time while growing up.
In a statement sent by his campaign, Campa-Najjar’s pastor, Mike Meeks of EastLake Church, said: “I have known Ammar since he was 16 when he became part of our youth ministry. Before he left for college he grew up serving our janitorial staff, worship team, and youth ministry where he even gave Sunday Youth group sermons. When he served in federal government, we talked regularly about life and the faith challenges of following Jesus in today’s world.”
