Marisa Calderon, one of two Democrats in the race to replace former Rep. Duncan D. Hunter in the 50th Congressional District, abruptly suspended her campaign Friday citing the need to focus on supporting ill family members.

“I entered this race because I believed I’d be the best candidate to give residents in CA-50 representation they can be proud of, a congresswoman who will work for them,” Calderon said in a statement posted on social media.

“But life is also about the right timing. In recent months, I’ve been an active caregiver for a close family member battling Stage IV cancer, so last week’s news that my father is now fighting the same battle signaled that this isn’t the right time for my campaign. I can’t have my heart in two places while trying to raise the resources needed to win; it wouldn’t be fair to the voters and it wouldn’t be fair to my family. So it’s with a heavy heart that today, I announce the end of my campaign for Congress.”

Going forward Calderon has thrown her support behind the one other Democrat in the field, Ammar Campa-Najjar.


The executive director of the National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals, Calderon entered the race shortly before the December filing deadline and had recently begun seeing support for her campaign, which focused on housing affordability, comprehensive immigration reform and “pocketbook issues.”

A San Diego Union-Tribune/10News poll of 512 likely voters conducted by SurveyUSA a few weeks ago found Calderon polling around 3 percent.

https://twitter.com/marisacalderon/status/1223326393729085440?s=20


With Calderon’s departure from the race, Campa-Najjar is left as the sole Democrat in the field, and concerns about Democrats splitting their vote and being shut out of the November general election are likely to dissipate.

Political observers have long regarded Campa-Najjar, who lost to Hunter in 2018, as the frontrunner for Democrats in the race. The general expectation is that he’ll make it through the primary with a consolidated Democratic vote and then head to the general election in November to face one of three well-known Republicans: former Rep. Darrell Issa, former San Diego City councilman and conservative radio host Carl DeMaio or State Sen. Brian Jones.

Five other candidates — Republican Nathan Wilkins, independents Helen Horvath, Lucinda Jahn and Henry Ota, and Peace and Freedom Party candidate José Cortés — are also in the race, but none have shown significant support in recent polls.

Whichever top Republican emerges in the primary will be regarded as a favorite in the general election by most election observers, given the deep red bent of the 50th district, which includes huge swaths of San Diego’s east county and inland north county and a small portion of Riverside County.

As of Jan. 2, there were 141,853 registered Republicans in the district, compared to 101,927 registered Democrats and 91,946 voters who are registered as no party preference.


Residents who vote by mail should begin receiving their ballots late next week.