May 22, 2026 (San Diego’s East County — Earlier this month, ECM interviewed Marni Von Wilpert, a Democrat and one of the leading contenders running in the 48th Congressional district for an open seat as a result of Republican Darrell Issa retiring. She’s a San Diego City Councilmember, a former civil prosecutor with the City Attorney’s office, and a former lawyer for the House Committee on Education and Labor. This is an important race in a redrawn district that could help determine the balance of power in Congress. This interview was originally aired on KNSJ radio.
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The redrawn district includes Escondido, Vista, Warner Springs, Santa Ysabel, Borrego Springs, Descanso and Pine Valley, as well as parts of Oceanside, Riverside County and Palm Springs. She lives in Scripps Ranch. Her principal opponents in the primary are Supervisor Jim Desmond, a Republican, and Democrat Ammar Campa Najjar, a Navy reservist who has worked in the Obama administration Labor department.
Q: Why do you believe you are the strongest candidate to win the general election and square off against a Republican, most likely Supervisor Jim Desmond?
A: I am running to stand up to Donald Trump. We need to take our country back. We need to unrig our economy so that it works for everyone, not just a wealthy few. We need healthcare that makes people healthier and not poorer. And we need to stop Donald Trump’s chaos and confusion, including having a functioning immigration system and stopping the unAmerican, aggressive tactics of ICE. I am the strongest Democrat to flip this district because I’ve done it before. I’ve won competitive red to blue elections multiple times, and I’ve governed and delivered for citizens of our region for six years now. I’ve spent my whole life in public service. I’ve worked in the U.S. Peace Corps in sub-Saharan African during the AIDS crisis, I’ve served as a civil rights lawyer in Mississippi so I know why voting rights are so important, and I’ve served as a local prosecutor here in San Diego. I’ve prosecuted corporations that broke the law.
Q: As the daughter of an immigrant, you’ve said our immigration system should reflect our values, not fear and division. Yet Trump’s mass deportations are going way beyond deporting violent criminals as he originally campaigned to do. Now anyone who crossed the border without authorization, even as babies, are being deported. We’re seeing special protection status for people who came here legally taken away, such as Afghan translators who helped our military and people granted asylum from other places, are having those protections arbitrarily stripped so they can be deported, too, and he’s even talking about denaturalizing some citizens. What specifally would you work to change?
A: My father is an immigrant…he was drafted during the Vietnam era and he served in the U.S. Army. I’m very proud of my immigrant background and I grew up in a border town. And so I know that we can have a strong border that stops bad actors and drugs and guns, but promotes lawful immigration and students and commerce, and has a pathway for citizenship for people including as you mentioned, the Afghan immigrants who served alongside our soldiers in Afghanistan. And the Dreamers, the young people who came here through no fault of their own and have done nothing wrong, have gone to college, want to be good members of our society, they need a pathway to citizenship as well. We have to stop the chaos and corruption of Donald Trump’s ICE agents. I am the public safety chair for the city of San Diego. I support professional, highly trained law enforcement. But ICE is not law enforcement, it’s chaos. When Renee Good and Alex Pretti (two American citizens) were killed in the streets, that’s when the whole nation saw that this is not law enforcement and it needs to stop.
Q: Many Americans have voiced deep concern about the trampling of Constitutional rights by the current administration, and even defying court orders on issues such as immigration, and even tearing down part of the White House without authorization. What should Congress do to restore checks and balances, particularly if Democrats are successful in taking back control of Congress? And we should note that this seat is one of a handful that Democrats are targeting nationwide. So what should be done to restore those checks and balances?
A: Thank you for the question. I studied our Constitution quite heavily in law school, and our founding fathers put in three branches of government to be coequal branches for a reason. And it was to prevent someone like Donald Trump from claiming authoritarianism in our country. And so Congress needs to become a coequal branch of government again and stop rubber stamping everything coming out of Donald Trump’s White House. We need to enact the War Powers resolution and reign in Donald Trump’s unilateral war in Iran which has caused nothing but chaos and caused all prices in California to spike—at the gas pump, in energy prices and food prices.
Q: What actions would you support to reduce inflation, improve the economy and help the many Americans who are struggling with affordability on everything from groceries to housing costs? We should note that Donald Trump ran on a platform of reducing inflation but in fact it has increased in many sectors.
A: Yeah, I hear the most from the constituents that I serve in Southern California that they are grappling with the incredibly high cost of living here in Southern California, and I’ve been working very hard to try and help…I worked with our local teachers. When I found out that they were being priced out of the housing market and were leaving California, I started the very first teacher assistance down payment grant program and worked with the teacher’s union so that they could afford to buy homes in the cities where they were teaching, and it’s working! I’m getting pictures, selfies of teachers in front of their new front doors with their families and they’re staying in the classroom. I also helped write the first law in the nation to require grocery stores to give people the same coupons, if there’s $3 off the price of eggs or milk, without having to download a digital coupon because it excludes people. The AARP called and said seniors are by and large paying more for food because they’re trying to figure out this digital platform. So now grocery stores have to have in-store coupons..
But now Donald Trump and Jim Desmond want to raise our prices through these continued tariff wars. We have to undo the tariffs that Americans are paying and push back on everything he’s doing. If we want to get affordable healthcare again, we need to undo the Big Ugly Bill. Restore the funding to Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act tax subsidies, make sure that Planned Parenthoods are funded and everyone has access to healthcare…
Q: You are pro-choice and pro-LGBTQ rights. What do you believe should be done to restore and protect women’s reproductive health and LGBTQ rights?
A: Yes, I am proud to have had the support of Planned Parenthood through all of my elections, and when Roe v. Wade was overturned by the Supreme Court, we passed a law here in San Diego requiring women to have access to clinics, making sure that protesters could not get in their way. And in Congress, I want to restore the rights of Roe v. Wade across this country and make it a national federal law. Same with LGBTQ rights. I am a young LGTBQ woman. I just got engaged to my girlfriend We are planning to get married next year and so this is deeply personal to me just to be treated with dignity and equality like everyone else. I want to get the Equality Act in Congress so that people who face discrimination, who face homophobia, they need to have the same rights as everyone else.
Q: The Trump administration has abolished the department of education and slashed healthcare. What are your views on this?
A: I am a proud product of public education here in Southern California. I went to public schools my whole life including college. I went to UC Berkeley, another great state school, and I’m very proud to have earned the support of our teacher’s union, and the classified employees union, the folks who do ground maintenance at schools, and the nurses and the counselors. And all of us are deeply disturbed by Donald Trump’s cuts to education, including closing the department of Education. So instead of spending $25 billion on Donald Trump’s foreign war in Iran, we need to spend it here at home. We need to actually fund our classroom education so that students get a good education in this country, no matter where they come from.
Q: Q: Wildfires have been devastating for many of the communities across the district you’re running in. Yet Trump has called for elimination of FEMA, the federal emergency management agency which has provided disaster relief many times to San Diego County residents after devastating wildfires and other disasters. Would you fight to protect FEMA and disaster relief aid?
A: I will wholeheartedly support our federal firefighters, not only in making sure they are fully funded to do their jobs, but also making sure that they have the equipment they need to keep our communities safe…I live in Scripps Ranch and in 2003, the Cedar came through and destroyed hundreds of homes. Most of my high school friends lost their homes. We were evacuated and thank goodness the firefighters saved the home that I grew up in, but then the Witch Creek Fire came through a few years later and destroyed significant homes in Rancho Bernardo, Penasquitos, San Pasqual Valley.
And so since I’ve been on the San Diego City Council, I’ve been a champion for our wildfire preparedness programs. I’ve gotten funded not one, not two, but three wildfire attack helicopters for the whole region in San Diego County….I’m very proud to have earned the endorsement of our San Diego Firefighters, Local 145, because they know that I am the strongest candidate to fight for our wildfire protection resources—and yes, of course I will protect FEMA. What we saw in the Los Angeles fires last year was absolutely devastating. We need to make sure that we continue to fund FEMA because natural disasters are going to continue to happen and get worse with climate change.
Q: East County is home to Cleveland National Forest and several designated federal wilderness areas. The Trump administration is closing many national forest offices and seeking to open our national forests to logging, mining and other environmentally destructive uses, also allowing roads into roadless wilderness area, and now the Trump administration is authorizing use of cyanide bombs to kill predators on BLM lands, these have actually killed people including kids who picked them up. Would you work to protect these areas from such uses?
A: I am an environmentalist. One of the reasons I’m running for Congress is I believe we need to take care of our planet for the next generation, and everyone deserves access to clean air and clean water, and affordable energy prices. We are finding that renewable energy is more affordable, and we need to protect our public lands to do this. Where would we be if we didn’t have our national parks in this nation? I am wholeheartedly against using our public lands for logging, for drilling, and I will stand up against Donald Trump every day on that. You know, another issue that came up recently, I was in Borrego Springs talking to a wonderful group of voters. This is a community I visited as a kid, going to Girl Scout Camp in a dark skies community, learning about constellations…And it’s such a hidden gem, Anza Borrego Desert State Park with its beautiful views and desert blooms. We need to protect it and make sure that Donald Trump is not trying to come in and destroy public lands that are true gems for all of us.
Q: How would you balance your stated views on the need to protect Americans against mass shootings and gun violence vs. those who want to own guns for hunting or self protection?
A: I am a strong proponent of gun violence prevention and I am not worried about lawful, responsible gun owners who are doing the right thing. The ones who keep me up at night are the ones who want to shoot up a school or a place of worship or an office or a domestic partner. I’ve largely found that lawful gun owners agree. They don’t want people shooting schools or churches or mosques…so the way I’ve approached preventing gun violence in our communities is by bringing people together and working with them in a conversation, not dividing us. For example, we unfortunately had a horrible mass shooting in the Gaslamp district in April 2021. I had just recently been elected as a Councilmember. A 28-year-old valet drive was shot and killed, he was just parking cars…four tourists were shot. Luckily two bystanders tackled the shooter….the police chief called me and said I have to tell you about the shooter; he had two prior violent convictions and I said ‘Wait a minute. How did he get a gun? California has a robust background check system and if you’re a convicted violent felon, you can’t own a gun in California. And he (the police chief) said, “Marni, he didn’t. He had a ghost gun.” He said it’s when you go to a firearms dealer and you can’t pass a background check to get a fully assembled firearm, you can put your ID in your back pocket, no ID required….and you can buy the parts and build it yourself…these are not registered, and that’s why police call them ghost guns. So I wrote the first law in California to close this loophole. I told the lawful gun dealers if you want to sell the unassembled parts, the slides, receivers, sell they all you want but stamp them with a registration number…so to buy the parts, you have to pass a background check just like you would with a fully assembled gun. And then I saved the lawful gun owners a step because when you assemble a gun at home, it’s now preregistered. But anyone not eligible to buy a gun, a gang member or domestic violence abuser, would no longer be able to buy the parts. And it worked. I had high school students, moms, but I also had uniformed law enforcement by my side because police also don’t like being shot by illegal guns. That brought people into the conversation and now it’s gone statewide.
Q: As a labor attorney in Washington D.C. you drafted the Pro Act that would be similar but stronger than California’s AB 5, requiring that more workers be employees rather than independent contractors. While this is well intentioned the consequences of AB 5 have been very difficult for small businesses and nonprofits and media outlets that rely on many freelancers. I can tell you that our nonprofit media outlet would be out of business if not for exceptions in AB 5 that are not in the Pro Act. If elected, would you be open to amendments to add better protections for small nonprofits, small businesses, newspapers and other media outlets?
A: Yes, thank you for the question. I was a labor rights law in the Obama administration. I argued workers’ rights cases across the country. I do remember when AB 5 was passed here in California there were amendments that needed to be made, artists for example, musicians as well and of course I’d be completely open to doing that at the national level. The real issue it trying to address was the large gig economy and the Uber drivers. I’m always happy to listen, it’s one of the things that I do best as a local official; we don’t always get it right the first time, but we also have to make sure that the workers in the Amazon and Walmart warehouses all have a voice on their job and are protected.
Q: Can you please share your foreign policy priorities including specifically your views on the Iran War and the Israel-Palestine conflict and the Ukraine invasion by Russia?
A: I spent two hours serving in the Peace Corps, my father served in the Army, my grandfather served…I took care of children born with HIV whose parents died of AIDS…it was President Bush, the younger Bush who deployed me, and it was some of the best foreign diplomacy we’ve ever done. Our relationship with African countries was so strong because it was one of the best public health programs we’ve ever seen…now China is replacing us….I will be the second Peace Corps volunteer in Congress, those will be my views on how we should lead…We should be a democracy that people can look up to, not an international bully who turns our back on our NATO allies…I am wholeheartedly against Donald Trump declaring war on Iran without asking the American people, of course the Ayotollah in Iran was absolutely terrible to his own people, he crushed their protests, Iran can never have a nuclear weapon, it would be devastating to the entire global security system, but the way Donald Trump has gone about this has been a complete quagmire and a mess. Same thing with what’s happening in Ukraine. I’ve been devastating by what’s happening in Ukraine…As for Israel and Palestine, I am very deeply hopeful that we can have a two state solution where Palestinians can leave in peace and security, Hamas is disarmed as a terrorist group, and Israeli families can live in peace and security and self determination. We have to stop the violence in West Bank and unauthorized territorial gains…but we also have to stop this warmonger of a President. He changed Dept of Defense to Dept of War and spent $25 billion on his war in Iran and we don’t have affordable healthcare and access to food and education here in our own country.
Q: You’ve called climate change an urgent threat, a position that climate scientists support. Yet the Trump administration has withdrawn the US from the Paris Climate accord and taken all sorts of actions to weaken measures aimed at curbing greenhouse gas emissions and worsen air pollution in southern California by taking away our state’s rights, while boosting fossil fuel production. What actions do you support to address climate change and reverse backsliding on this issue?
A: My parents spent time in Los Angeles before I was born and they’ve told me how horrible it was…I will be a champion for our environment, a champion for climate action in Congress just as I have been here in San Diego. I helped lead the vote for a $60 million grant program for electric vehicle chargers all throughout our public facilities so we can get to zero emissions and give people zero emission cars on the road….we just invested $125 million in retrofitting buildings to meet our zero emissions buildings by retiring diesel powered generators at our police and fire stations with solar battery storage, because solar is free and it doesn’t pollute our environment. But the cost of all of this is going up because Donald Trump has reversed the bipartisan infrastructure act for climate change funding. And these are good union jobs, the IEBW is one of my strongest supporters…we can create good, green jobs but Donald Trump is increasing our energy prices and wasting our taxpayer money…he decided to pay a billion dollars of taxpayer money to …..stop a company from building a wind project on the East Coast.
Q: Trump has increased the federal deficit and national debt to record levels with all of these wars, despite bringing in DOGE to slash staffing at federal agencies. How would you achieve your goals work to reduce the deficit and the national debt and help fund your priorities?
A: I am deeply terrified by the uncontrolled spending that Donald Trump is doing…Jim Desmond will do more of the same rubber stamping of Donald Trump….We need to stop this war in abroad and money going into another war in the Middle East that Donald Trump promised he would not get us into. We need to undo the permanent tax cuts from 2017 that Donald Trump and Darrell Issa put into place because the ultra-wealthy in this country should be paying their fair share so that we can protect Social Security and Medicaid and Medicare and public education. We also need to work very hard to reduce the national debt. I’ve worked hard at the city of San Diego to support our local law enforcement and officers but also to make sure that we are systematic about reducing overtime costs…because we don’t want to drill a hole in our budget. I’m watching Donald Trump deploy the National Guard to American cities. Do you know how much that costs?
Q: San Diego County is home to more family farms of 10 acres or less than any other county in America, and more Native American tribes (19) than any other U.S. county. What will you do to help struggling farmers and protect Native American rights?
A: I actually represent farmers in my current city council district—San Pasqual Valley runs through my district and I have dairy farms, avocado farms, they do some of the best climate work…they provide climate sinks….our dairy farm, he upcycles spent grains from breweries…then collects spent grains and feeds it to the cattle…Tariffs have been horrible for our farmers and with Strait of Hormuz closed so long now, fertilizer cannot get out into world market so cost of fertilizer has gone up and diesel that they put into all of their equipment is now over $7 a gallon. We need to stand up for our farmers and our agricultural communities. They provide food to all Americans. When Donald Trump decided to defund our SNAP program including for seniors, that’s actually defunding farmers who provide the meals that our seniors need. We need to undo all of this and stand up for our farmers in Congress.
Thank you for asking about our fantastic Native American tribes in congressional district 48, we have so many of them from Syucan to Rincon, the Kumeyaay nation….it’s just fantastic to get to work with them. I’ve worked with them many times on city council. I’d like to be on the Natural Resources Council when I get to Congress to make sure we do protect our native American rights and also celebrate their culture. They’re wonderful people.
Q: Who are your major endorsements and where voters they find more information on your campaign?
Emily’s list has endorsed me…retired Senator Barbara Boxer has endorsed me…I’m very proud orf my labor endorsements including AFL-CIO, the firefighters, local police officers are supporting me, and the gun violence work. Gabby Gifford and Brady have endorsed me. Please check out my website, MarniVonWilpert.com….We’re leading the fight against Donald Trump. I see firsthand how working families are struggling and Trump is making things worse for everyone in Southern California. I’m the fighter we need to go fight for us in Congress.