District: CA-48
Cook Political Ranking: Lean D
Performance Voter Index: D+2
Marni von Wilpert is a member of the San Diego City Council and is running to flip California’s 48th congressional district. She represents District 5, which was once known as San Diego’s most conservative city council seat before von Wilpert flipped it blue in 2020. von Wilpert has spent her career advocating for others. She served in the Peace Corps in Botswana during the AIDS epidemic, founding a legal clinic to combat discrimination in the Deep South, and later served in Congress as counsel on the House Education and Labor Committee, where she helped write the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act to strengthen workers’ rights. Back in California, von Wilpert served as a civil prosecutor in the San Diego City Attorney’s Office, where she cracked down on price gouging during the pandemic, held polluters accountable for toxic dumping, and prosecuted the opioid industry for the addiction and devastation they caused. While serving on the city council, von Wilpert authored California’s first ban on untraceable ghost guns and launched affordable housing grants for teachers. Advocating for her community, von Wilpert also helped raise wages and opposed costly water and trash rate hikes to protect working families. von Wilpert is running for the U.S. House in California because she wants to “tackle the skyrocketing cost of living, protect reproductive freedom, defend LGBTQ rights, take on polluters, and make Washington work for working families — not just the wealthy few.”

Ahead of the 2024 race, this district changed under the redistricting process. Rep. Darrell Issa has represented CA-48 since 2023, but after Prop 50 made the district more Democratic, he announced his retirement. Ahead of the 2026 race, this district was redrawn to become more Democratic following the passage of Proposition 50 in November. After Prop 50 passed, the partisan voter index for this district shifted from R+9 to D+2. Under the new map, CA-48 would have supported Kamala Harris by 3 points in 2024, a shift of 18 points.CA-48 is the most competitive new seat in CA, with Democrats now holding a 4-point voter registration advantage.The longtime incumbent of this seat, Rep. Darrell Issa, decided to retire rather than run in this more Democratic seat. The non-partisan primary occurred on Tuesday, June 2, with 12 total candidates. Jim Desmond (R) and von Wilpert were the top two moving on to the general election. Republican San Diego County Supervisor Jim Desmond announced his candidacy shortly thereafter. von Wilpert was added to the DCCC’s Red to Blue program after the primary.