THE BUZZ — IN THE NAVY: The USS Midway — the aircraft carrier at Navy Pier in San Diego — has loomed over Ammar Campa-Najjar’s life for nearly two decades. Seventeen years ago, Campa-Najjar longed to be a sailor, staring off at the Midway during Fleet Week and imagining himself in a Navy uniform. But for family reasons, including helping his single mom care for his brother, he wasn’t able to serve. Life took him elsewhere. Campa-Najjar ran for political office, including for Congress against then-Rep. Duncan D. Hunter, and there was the Midway again. In 2018, Hunter’s father, former Rep. Duncan L. Hunter, held a news conference in front of the aircraft carrier and attacked Campa-Najjar as a security risk. The elder Hunter, part of a GOP political dynasty in East San Diego County with deep military roots, went after Campa-Najjar’s own father and grandfather. It was painful for Campa-Najjar, who attended the elder Hunter’s news conference in front of the Midway, listening as his patriotism was questioned. At the time, Campa-Najjar told reporters that it was actually the younger Hunter who would have trouble passing a security screening, given the federal indictment he was under. On Thursday, Campa-Najjar was back on the Midway and surrounded by loved ones. They gathered to witness his next chapter: The 34-year-old being commissioned as a Navy officer. “How fitting it is to be at this place, reclaiming my family's story and writing the next chapter of service and patriotism,” Campa-Najjar told POLITICO. At the ceremony, he was joined by his longtime partner, Rep. Sara Jacobs (D-San Diego) and mom, Abby Campa, a product of nearby Barrio Logan. Campa-Najjar called the moment “surreal,” an only-in-America story for a Latino-Arab American whose childhood was spent shuttling between the Middle East in Gaza and the middle class in America. “I always wondered if I'd be able to serve in this capacity, especially when I was being attacked because of my heritage, my ethnicity, or where I spent a couple of years of my childhood,” he said. “And the military said those are strengths, those are assets, those aren’t liabilities. And that was a huge redeeming, validating moment for me.” Rep. Jimmy Panetta, a former Navy intelligence officer, said Campa-Najjar’s background “strengthened his fidelity to our country and values,” and pointed to other attributes, including his command of Arabic and Spanish. Two hours before the ceremony, Campa-Najjar said he was deeply grateful to the Navy. “Sometimes a lot of us children of immigrants or people of color tend to feel like we have to prove ourselves twice as much to be seen, or to be granted the same opportunities,” he said. He circled back to the Midway, describing how unlikely this all would have been as he stood in the shadow of the aircraft carrier in 2018 under attack by Hunter. “I would not have thought that it would be an anchor in my life, a defining place for a career I’ve wanted to have for a very long time,” Campa-Najjar said.
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