Marni von Wilpert

Von Wilpert grew up in North San Diego County in a military family, according to her campaign website; her father immigrated to the United States and served in the Army.[3] She earned a bachelor's degree in peace and conflict studies from UC Berkeley and a J.D. from Fordham University School of Law.[4] She served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Botswana and, after law school, founded a legal clinic in the Deep South associated with the Mississippi Center for Justice.[3][4] She then worked as an attorney for the National Labor Relations Board and as counsel on the House Education and Labor Committee, where, according to her campaign, she helped write the PRO Act, and later joined the Economic Policy Institute as associate labor counsel.[3][4]

Von Wilpert served as a San Diego deputy city attorney from 2018 to 2020; her campaign says she took on the opioid industry, price gougers and polluters in that role.[7][3][4] She was elected to the San Diego City Council in 2020, defeating Joe Leventhal, and took office in December 2020; she was re-elected without opposition in March 2024.[2][4] On the City Council she chairs the Public Safety Committee, according to her campaign, and was appointed to the San Diego County Regional Airport Authority board; she co-sponsored the ordinance making San Diego the first city to require stores to honor digital-only coupons in-store.[3][4] She filed to run for the California State Senate in 2026, then instead ran for the 48th Congressional District and advanced from the June 2 primary.[2][4] Her campaign website emphasized costs, housing, health care and opposition to the Trump administration's immigration enforcement.[3] She won the November 3, 2026 general election with 59.3% of the vote to Jim Desmond's 40.7%, according to unofficial results reported by NBC News.[1]