Democratic heiress Sara Jacobs and her billionaire family have blown more than $200,000 on her boyfriend’s doomed political career, which includes three failed campaigns and a history of confusing flip-flops that now has fellow Dems praying for him to drop out of a key midterm race.
Ammar Campa-Najjar – the grandson of a Palestinian militant assassinated by Israel – first ran for Congress in the eastern San Diego area in 2018 as a Bernie Sanders-style progressive.
He lost to former Republican Rep. Duncan Hunter, who was then under federal indictment during a historic “blue wave” during President Trump’s first term.
The 37-year-old, a public affairs consultant and Naval Reserve Officer since 2023, then made a complete U-turn in his next failed campaign in 2020 — holding a campaign event with a far-right Jan. 6 rioter, saying he opposed abortion and assault weapons bans, and vowing to investigate Barack Obama and Joe Biden.
“I’m going to investigate Trump, Biden, Hillary — all of them,” he insisted in a lengthy interview with Justin Haskins of controversial conservative group Defend East County.
The head-scratching one-eighty has Dems rolling their eyes.
“The only cool thing about being a flip-flopper is wearing the shoes,” said Mike Trujillo, a Democratic consultant. “That’s the only thing he has going for him.”
But Campa-Najjar’s biggest asset is his heiress girlfriend — whose tech tycoon grandfather has an estimated net worth of $1.2 billion.
Jacobs, granddaughter of Qualcomm founder Irwin Jacobs and a congresswoman since 2021, has thrown her vast family fortune behind her fickle partner — even co-hosting a pricey campaign lunch with her grandfather, with tickets up to $7,000.
Campaign records show the loaded Jacobs clan — including the congresswoman’s grandfather, parents, uncles and siblings — showering Campa-Najjar’s current campaign for California’s 48th district, representing eastern San Diego.
The patient family has donated at least $73,000 since August.
At a September campaign event, he name-dropped his powerful girlfriend and decried “misinformation” about his positions.
“I believe every woman has a right to choose what to do with her own body. Sara would not be with me if that were not true,” he insisted.
“You guys know that. Okay?”
Jacobs and Campa-Najjar have been dating since around 2019, according to media reports.
The pair have reportedly shacked up at Jacob’s San Diego home and have been spotted at exclusive events like an annual Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee retreat in posh Torrey Pines.
The relationship has ruffled feathers among some in the San Diego Jewish community because Campa-Najjar, a Southern California native of mixed Mexican and Palestinian heritage, is the paternal grandson of Muhammad Youssef Al-Najjar — who co-founded Fatah, the Palestinian nationalist group, alongside Yasser Arafat.
Members of the Jacobs family also bankrolled Campa-Najjar’s failed bid in 2022 for mayor of nearby Chula Vista, when he was accused of “parachuting” into the town to run despite allegedly living at his girlfriend’s San Diego home.
He also briefly launched a bid for state Assembly in late 2020, raising $73,000 for an exploratory committee before dropping out.
Members of the Jacobs family gave $118,000 to his failed campaign for Chula Vista mayor, when he again ran as a liberal, losing to Republican John McCann in the heavily Democratic city.
Campa-Najjar was accused of dishonest tactics after he included a photo of himself with a woman and two young children, falsely presenting himself as a family man.
His shifting persona was so odd that the San Diego Union-Tribune branded him a “brazenly cynical ideological chameleon” — though the paper endorsed him over his Republican rival anyway.
He then allegedly stiffed a campaign contractor, Jaimey Sexton, who claims he failed to pay nearly $6,000 he’s owed to him since 2022
“Sara [Jacobs] can stop by the ATM, take out $6,000 and pay me,” Sexton said.
“If you can’t pay his bills, how can you be be responsible for our money as a congressman?” he added.
Since incumbent Rep. Darrell Issa announced his retirement, Campa-Najjar’s main rivals are Republican Jim Desmond and Democrat Marni von Wilpert, a San Diego city council member.
A group of Democrats is so alarmed by Campa-Najjar’s latest quixotic bid for Congress that they penned a letter urging other Dems not to endorse the three-time loser.
“Ammar’s repeated defeats have compounded a troubling pattern: a lack of clear principles Democrats can unite behind and a tendency to tell different groups whatever they want to hear,” wrote San Diego County Dem official Lauren Cazares and other party leaders.
“It would be unfortunate if we were to not take back the House because someone was trying to impress her boyfriend,” added Trujillo, the Dem consultant.
Republicans are reportedly champing at the bit to run against the shapeshifting Campa-Najjar, who has curiously racked up endorsements from top Democrats like Rep. Eric Swalwell and Rep. Ted Lieu despite his checkered political history.
Trujullo chalked it up to his “proximity to [Jacobs].”
“She’s clearly whipping endorsements for him in this case and its working,” he said.
Jacobs’ spokesperson, Lauren McIlvaine, denied that she’d asked colleagues to endorse her beau.
“She hasn’t asked her colleagues for endorsements — in fact, she’s told her colleagues explicitly not to endorse because of her, so there’s no ambiguity, pressure, or sense of obligation,” she told The Post.
A GOP memo obtained by the Washington Examiner named Campa-Najjar as Republicans’ preferred candidate due to his losing record and inconsistent positions.
“Perennial loser Ammar Campa-Najjar has lost so many races that even the people closest to him know he’s a lost cause,” said Christian Martinez, spokesperson for the National Republican Congressional Committee.
Campa-Najjar did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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