Duncan Hunter’s Democrat Challenger Willing to Work with Trump

Former Barack Obama campaign staffer Ammar Campar-Najjar, who is challenging Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA), says he is willing to work with President Donald Trump.

In a recent interview with The Hill, Ammar Campa-Najjar, 28, who is of Hispanic and Arabic heritage, said he believes he can pitch progressive ideas to Trump, and that the president may wind up being receptive in the name of “political expediency.”

Trump has, so far, been more open than other Republican presidents before him to entertaining ideas that are often embraced by the left. For example, last week President Trump said he is open to the idea of breaking up giant Wall Street banks. It is an idea that, thus far, has largely been pushed by liberal progressives like Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA).

In his interview with The Hill, Campa-Najjar compared Trump’s potential to that of President Lyndon B. Johnson, but noted that “LBJ was a far greater ideologue than Trump,” whom he described as “a pragmatist, not an ideologue. So if you create the political pressure where progressive ideas are more expedient for him, I guarantee he’ll embrace them. I think he’d rather become a Democrat than a failed president … not in name, but in deed.”

The Democratic congressional candidate noted several areas where he disagrees with Trump, including his temporary visa ban on travelers from six designated terror-prone countries..

“I’m against the ban, but how can we make sure that [Islamic State in Iraq and Syria leader Abu Bakr] al-Baghdadi’s threats to exploit the immigration system never come to fruition while making sure, at the same time, we are not inviting discrimination?” he asked. The Hill wrote that if Campa-Najjar is elected, he will work to support vetting procedures without using “blanket bans.”

In March, the Justice Department opened a criminal investigation into Hunter for potential ethics violations by allegedly misusing campaign funds.

Asked to respond to those allegations by The Hill, Campa-Najjar acknowledged that he was aware of them, but said, “I don’t know how to run a negative campaign. I’m hoping that in my little island of America, this campaign can be one of unity, not division, and a redeeming moment for people who felt that 2016 was from a different world.”

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