Greetings everyone. Excited to introduce you to Marni von Wilpert, another one of our terrific candidates in a strong position to flip a battleground House district blue. A San Diego City Councilmember, von Wilpert just won a tough primary in in CA-48, one of the new districts the voters of California created when the Prop 50 redistricting ballot initiative passed last November. Now it’s critical we finish the effort that we started in the summer of 2025 to and help Marni win this now +2 Dem, “Lean Democrat” district this November. The new CA-48 is without question one of our very best pick-up opportunities of the cycle.
From our conversation:
I'm really excited because I've beaten Republicans before. I flipped the most conservative, ruby-red district on the San Diego City Council from red to blue in 2020, and I'm using that same coalition to flip this seat red to blue.
I've been in public service my entire career. After college, I served in the U.S. Peace Corps — I was deployed to Botswana, in sub-Saharan Africa, to care for children born with HIV during the AIDS crisis. And that's why I care deeply about the U.S. Foreign Service, USAID, and public health. I came back to the U.S. and went to law school in New York City, then decided to start my career as a civil rights lawyer. I moved to Mississippi, in the Deep South, and worked on civil rights and discrimination claims — and that's why I care so deeply about the Voting Rights Act, and want to work to pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Act when I get to Congress.
I then moved to work for President Obama as a labor lawyer — I worked at the National Labor Relations Board enforcing union rights around the country. When I get to Congress, passing the PRO Act — protecting the right to organize, finally helping working people unrig the economy — is going to be a huge priority for me.
Here’s the new CA-48:
Despite having had to spend to win her June primary von Wilpert remains competitive in the money chase:
To support Marni today please consider chipping into our Winning the House - Second Wave Fund or giving to her directly. We set up our Second Wave campaign to help these candidates replenish after their late primaries. You can learn more about Marni by visiting her website, where you can also sign up to volunteer from wherever you are.
More from our conversation:
The way I've governed on my city council seat these past six years is by taking the time to bring people together. I'm sick of dividing us over important issues, and one of the issues I care deeply about is gun violence prevention. I'm a member of the Columbine generation — I watched those high schoolers run for their lives on national TV when I was in high school myself. So when I first got elected in San Diego, I flipped that Republican district red to blue, but then I had to get to work representing everybody. When we had a mass shooting in the San Diego downtown Gaslamp area — April 2021, four months into my first term as a councilmember. I heard from the police chief that the shooter had bypassed our background-check system in California by obtaining a "ghost gun." It's a way to buy the unassembled parts of a gun and build it at home, and the parts are unserialized and unregistered, so when police find one at a crime scene, it's untraceable. It disappears from the system like a ghost.
So I wrote the first law in California to close that loophole. And I knew, Simon, that under our current Supreme Court, so far to the right, I couldn't ban the sale of the parts used to make ghost guns; they would overturn me. So instead, I said, gun stores, you want to sell gun parts, sell them all you want, but put a serial number on each part… so the parts are pre-serialized and you end up with a registered weapon. You have to pass a background check to get gun parts, just like you would a fully assembled gun. And we did it — the mayor signed the law here in San Diego.……
The federal court upheld our law. Then L.A. passed a ghost gun law, San Francisco passed it, San Jose passed it, and the state of California took action two years later.
As you will learn from watching the interview von Wilpert sure is one of those get shit done Democrats!
Pleased to be able to bring another great candidate to you today, Marni von Wilpert. Please hit like so more will meet her, share our conversation with others, support her campaign and her fellow Second Wavers, and keep working hard all. We have a country to save, and an elections like this one in CA-48 all across the country to win, together! - Simon
Bio - San Diego City Councilmember Marni von Wilpert, Democratic Nominee in CA-48
Marni von Wilpert is a San Diego City Councilmember, lifelong public servant, and former prosecutor who flipped San Diego’s most conservative council district blue — and she’s ready to do it again in Congress.
Marni grew up in North San Diego County in a military family. Her father immigrated to the United States and served proudly in the Army, and her grandfather fought in WWII. Marni’s parents instilled in her a commitment to service, which has taken her around the world — from serving in the Peace Corps in Botswana during the AIDS epidemic, to founding a legal clinic to combat discrimination in the Deep South, to later serving 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 home in San Diego County, Marni served as a civil prosecutor in the 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.
On City Council, Marni authored California’s first ban on untraceable ghost guns, launched affordable housing grants for teachers, raised wages, cut ambulance 911 response times, and opposed costly water and trash rate hikes to protect working families. She earned a reputation as a go-to taxpayer watchdog, fighting to save taxpayers millions and holding city contractors accountable for services they pledged to provide.
As chair of the Public Safety Committee, she’s also led the charge to keep communities safe – securing resources for first responders, protecting us from wildfires, advancing gun violence prevention, and expanding access to lifesaving opioid treatment.
Marni believes the United States must lead the world in setting a cutting-edge, trustworthy standard for innovation that works for working people. America should be a global leader in emerging technologies while ensuring that advancements expand access to the financial system, bolster public trust, and allow workers, families, and small businesses to benefit from the economy of the future. Marni supports legislation like the CLARITY Act, the GENIUS Act, and similar efforts that provide regulatory clarity for the safe development of emerging technologies that are essential to growing the American economy.
Now, Marni is running for Congress to tackle the skyrocketing cost of living, stop ICE's lawless attacks on our communities, protect reproductive freedom, defend LGBTQ rights, and make Washington work for working families — not just the wealthy few. With a proven record of service, results, and winning tough races, Marni is the battle-tested fighter needed to flip CA-48 and take back Congress.
