Marni von Wilpert has won over Republican voters before, and she’s betting she can do it again.
The San Diego City Council member is the Democratic nominee in California’s 48th Congressional District, a seat that was reliably Republican until voters approved Proposition 50 last November and redrew its lines, turning it into a highly contested midterm race.
The current representative, Republican Rep. Darrell Issa, is retiring after Proposition 50 redrew the district in Democrats’ favor. Also, in 2024, voters in the old district backed Donald Trump over Kamala Harris 56% to 41%.
Under its new boundaries, the same district number tells a different story. Harris would have won the redrawn district 50% to 47%, according to Ballotpedia.
The new map pairs deep-blue Palm Springs with large swaths of inland territory that leans Republican, mostly in southwestern Riverside County and inland North San Diego County.
Von Wilpert’s opponent is Republican San Diego County Supervisor Jim Desmond. Desmond is a longstanding conservative who has campaigned against sanctuary city protections and has been endorsed by Trump. He has defended the war with Iran, but this month he broke with Trump over the president’s remark suggesting Iran could “take out” San Diego.
A USC poll released Oct. 30 found von Wilpert leading Desmond 48% to 40% among likely voters, with a margin of error of 4.5 percentage points
Von Wilpert on President Donald Trump’s ‘broken promises’
Von Wilpert said some voters who once leaned conservative, and may have backed Trump in his first run, now see that he has broken his campaign promises, including his pledge never to get into another war in the Middle East.
“We’re seven months into the war in Iran, and we’re paying for it,” she said.
The current district has a two percent margin of Democratic voter registration, which jumps to four percent under the new lines, according to reporting by CalMatters. Escondido and San Marcos also went for former Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 General Election.
Von Wilpert argued that Trump’s record will move former supporters, citing his promise to cut costs at the pump and housing prices she said are “skyrocketing.”
“There are a lot of people who might have been conservative and might have voted for Trump the first time who realize he’s broken all those promises,” she said.
Her pitch to those voters rests on a crossover track record. Von Wilpert vows to serve all residents, regardless of “whose yard sign you had in your yard.”
“I flipped the most conservative San Diego City Council district red to blue in 2020,” she said, “but then the day I got elected, I represented everybody.”
