Veterans are speaking out against Democrat congressional candidate Ammar Campa-Najjar for using his military career to amplify his campaign.

Campa-Najjar allegedly referred to himself as a “Navy Officer” in his campaign materials, differing from his actual title of Navy Reserve officer. Because of this alleged discrepancy, Campa-Najjar’s campaign has raised eyebrows, since Navy policy requires reservists running for office to accurately disclose their military status.

‘Shame on Campa-Najjar and anyone who supported these cynical political stunts.’

The Navy later said officials will be “looking into” Campa-Najjar’s campaign in light of the alleged violation of Pentagon policy.

“I supported Ammar in the past, but won’t again,” Elizabeth Perez-Rodriguez, a Navy combat veteran, told the New York Post.

RELATED: This scandal-ridden Democrat just got one step closer to being expelled from Congress

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Campa-Najjar, who is notably dating billionaire heiress Rep. Sara Jacobs (D-Calif.), also caused uproar after staging photo opportunities for his campaign website. The photo that caught the most attention was from the Massachusetts National Cemetery, depicting Campa-Najjar near the grave of a Korean War veteran whom he reportedly had no connection to.

“As a combat veteran,” Perez-Rodriguez continued, “I can’t stand when political candidates exploit the uniform for politics, and using a veteran’s grave site in your campaign is toxic and disrespectful.”

“Our national cemeteries are sacred ground — not political backdrops,” Marine Corps combat veteran Brian Van Riper told the Post. “Using a service member’s grave site at a VA cemetery for political campaign photos is among the most disrespectful, distasteful, and cynical political ploys I’ve ever seen.”

“All these allegations are damning and show a complete disregard for what military service and wearing the uniform should mean,” Michael Malach, an Army combat veteran, told the Post. “Shame on Campa-Najjar and anyone who supported these cynical political stunts, especially using posed portraits at a deceased veteran’s grave to try and boost his campaign.”

Campa-Najjar’s campaign website does list him as a U.S. Navy Reserve officer alongside a disclaimer saying, “Any references to his military rank, service, or photographs in uniform are for identification purposes only and do not imply endorsement by the Department of War or the Department of the Navy.”

RELATED: Democrats’ latest victory in deep-red Mar-a-Lago district offers bleak midterm forecast

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Campa-Najjar’s campaign manager, Andi McNew, pushed back against the allegations, saying the cemetery photo was taken while “participating in an official Memorial Day event where he, alongside his unit, honored fallen service members.”

“At no point did the campaign engage in political activity at a VA cemetery, and any suggestion otherwise is a misrepresentation of both the facts and the applicable rules,” Andi McNew told the Post.

This is Campa-Najjar’s third congressional campaign. He is now running for California’s newly redrawn 48th District against incumbent Republican Rep. Darrell Issa.

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A video out of China is grabbing the world by the heartstrings. Published less than two weeks ago, it has already racked up over 270 million views.

The footage, taken by a citizen in China’s Jilin province, captures a pack of seven dogs walking down the highway, led by a corgi.

The pack had allegedly been stolen and put in a moving truck, destined for the illegal dog meat market. But they miraculously escaped and walked together for over 10 miles through freezing conditions, with the pack protecting an injured German shepherd.

All seven dogs made it safely back home to their families.

This “should be a movie,” says Glenn Beck.

But the heartwarming footage everyone is swooning over is only half the story, he says.

“This story has captured 270 million people because it’s what we’re missing,” says Glenn. “We’re living in a time where everything is breaking into pieces — our communities, our families, our nations, truth, everything.”

To compensate for this widespread fracturing, many of us, he says, are being told, “Look out for yourself. Protect your own. … Don’t get dragged down by somebody else’s weakness.”

“And yet, here on a highway in China — a frozen highway — seven dogs reject all of that crap. … The strongest slowed down, the smallest led, the injured was protected, and the group endured,” says Glenn, noting that unlike many humans, there was no agenda behind their unity — “just loyalty; just love.”

The “covenant” kind of unity shown by this pack of dogs leads Glenn to ask a blunt question: “What the hell is wrong with us?”

He points to the push in Canada and the United States to both implement and expand assisted-suicide programs, many of which target vulnerable groups like veterans, the mentally ill, and even children.

“We’re supposed to be the most loving … and we’re building systems where the most vulnerable are just discarded, where the innocent can just be exterminated,” he says.

“These seven dogs are there to remind us of something ancient, something simple, something really, really true: You don’t leave your own behind. … We all get home together.”

To hear more and see the sweet footage of the pack on its trek home, watch the video above.

Want more from Glenn Beck?

To enjoy more of Glenn’s masterful storytelling, thought-provoking analysis, and uncanny ability to make sense of the chaos, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

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Steve Hilton, the leading candidate for governor of California despite his status as an unapologetic Republican, called it a perfect metaphor for the state’s spate of recent failures.

After the University of Southern California abruptly canceled its televised gubernatorial debate less than 24 hours before it was set to take place, Democrats scrambled to come up with an alternative forum. Despite the frantic reaction, the crowded field of Democratic candidates couldn’t agree to the proposed ground rules.

As candidates scrambled to regroup after USC canceled the debate, the large field of Democrats still couldn’t agree on a commitment to continue including all the candidates in future debates.

The debate implosion and the subsequent failure to quickly reorganize played right into the leading GOP contender’s hands.

“This is just so symptomatic of everything that’s wrong with California,” Hilton told RealClearPolitics on Tuesday in the aftermath of the debate’s cancellation. “Everything is broken, from the high-speed rail, where they haven’t laid any tracks. Then last week we saw that $100 million butterfly bridge to nowhere. Nothing works. Everything’s broken. It’s all a shambles. They can’t even organize a debate.”

Decades ago, USC was considered a conservative alternative to public academic institutions across the state. More recently, the private university has become indistinguishable from the rest — at least when it comes to cancel culture.

All of the candidates the university had decided to invite to participate in the planned debate, hosted by Univision and KABC, are white. All of the candidates left out are minorities who also happened to be polling in the single digits: California Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond (D), former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa (D), and former California State Controller Betty Yee (D) were not invited after the university said they had not met their debate criteria.

Those invited included former Fox News host Steve Hilton (R), Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco (R), Rep. Eric Swalwell (D), former Rep. Katie Porter (D), businessman Tom Steyer (D), and San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan (D).

“We recognize that concerns about the selection criteria for tomorrow’s gubernatorial debate have created a significant distraction from the issues that matter to voters,” the university said in a statement. “Unfortunately, USC and [debate co-sponsor] KABC have not been able to reach an agreement on expanding the number of candidates. … As a result, USC has made the difficult decision to cancel tomorrow’s debate and will look for other opportunities to educate voters on the candidates and issues.”

The university would not commit to a new date for the debate.

Hilton and Bianco have been leading the crowded pack of candidates for months, stirring up panic amid veteran Democratic Party operatives that they could both emerge from the June 2 primary to run against one another and shut out Democrats entirely. Swalwell and Porter have been polling around 10%, with Steyer, despite spending tens of millions of dollars, a few points behind.

Under California’s “top-two” primary system, only the two candidates with the most votes, regardless of party, will advance to the general election. Democrats are concerned that Hilton and Bianco are poised to do so if the field of Democratic candidates doesn’t narrow down quickly.

It was Mahan’s invitation, however, that really stung among those sidelined from the stage. A white Democratic centrist candidate, Mahan had only recently entered the race and was polling in the single digits along with those excluded from the debate.

Still USC explained his inclusion by citing a new debate-inclusion criteria that valued intensive fundraising. The Democrats complaining about being left out didn’t buy the rationale and instead cited Mahan’s USC ties as evidence of special treatment.

RELATED: ‘Things will return to normal’ is not a serious policy

Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu/Getty Images

Mike Murphy, co-director of the USC Dornsife Center for the Political Future, which was hosting the debate, had been, on a voluntary basis, advising an independent expenditure committee supporting Mahan. Yet Murphy claimed to have nothing to do with organizing the debate and pledged to temporarily step down from his university role if he decided to accept a paid position from any entity backing Mahan.

Over the weekend when Xavier Becerra (D), Thurmond, and others started complaining about Mahan’s inclusion, top Democratic legislators decided to weigh in.

The speaker of California’s Assembly, Robert Rivas, and the leader of the state Senate, Monique Limon, joined the leaders of the legislative Latino, Black, Asian and Pacific Islander, Native American, LGBTQ, Jewish, and women’s caucuses in writing a letter to USC President Beong-Soo Kim demanding that they change their “biased criteria.”

“The outcry over this debate is deafening and includes legal demands from the excluded candidates’ attorneys, public calls by elected leaders across the state, concerns from the included candidates’ own campaigns, and growing alarm from California voters,” the legislators wrote. “Instead of responding to these valid concerns by expanding the debate, USC has doubled down.”

The debate was supposed to take place at a critical time — with two Republican candidates consistently running ahead of their Democratic counterparts, none of whom has broken out of a crowded field. It also was set to occur less than two months before the state planned to send ballots to every registered voter.

In early March, California Democratic Party Chair Rusty Hicks published an open letter urging Democratic contenders to consider dropping out if they didn’t see a realistic path to a primary victory.

“If you do not have a viable path to make it to the general election, do not file to place your name on the ballot for the primary election,” Hicks wrote just days before the March 6 filing deadline. But no candidate decided to heed Hicks’ call, and the letter drew a scathing response from Thurmond, who asserted that it was aimed at pressuring “candidates of color” to end their gubernatorial bids.

“Our political system is rigged,” Thurmond said. “The California Democratic Party is essentially telling every candidate of color in the race for governor to drop out.”

Hicks rejected that criticism, noting the letter did not name any specific candidate.

As candidates scrambled to regroup after USC canceled the debate, the large field of Democrats still couldn’t agree on a commitment to continue including all the candidates in future debates.

Part of the group wanted all parties to abide by a pledge to participate in future debates only if all Democratic candidates are invited. But that idea fell apart when they couldn’t get a commitment from fellow Democratic candidates.

Still Becerra, one of the candidates who was not invited to the USC debate, celebrated the decision to quash it entirely in a post on X:

We fought. We won! We stood up against an unfair candidate debate set-up that prematurely chose winners and losers. Tonight USC made the right decision to cancel their March 24 gubernatorial forum … so hopefully next time it’s done right. Thank you to everyone who stood up, raised hell and demanded justice. Never give up when you’re fighting for fairness!

The Democratic disarray on rescheduling handed an opportunity to Hilton and Bianco. Instead of taking the night off, Hilton held an X.com space with more than 300 people participating. Meanwhile Bianco spoke to supporters at an event in Los Angeles.

A Bianco campaign social media post crossed out the words “debate watch party” and blamed Democrats for the abrupt change.

“The Ds got the debate canceled, but we’re showing up anyway!” the post said. “See you tonight @sheriffbianco will be there.”

Hilton, who has been campaigning for roughly a year and has led in the polls for months, shared an X space forum with Elaine Culotti, an independent candidate for governor who is running under “NPP” — no party preference.

Culotti, a California real estate developer and interior designer who starred in the Discovery+ reality series “Undercover Billionaire,” appears poised to throw her support to Hilton if he wins the primary, even though she argues that her current participation in the race takes votes away from Swalwell.

The two more ideologically aligned candidates continued to criticize Democrats for blowing up the debate while laying out their own visions for reforming California, by not only stopping the U-Haul exodus of those moving out to find more affordable places to live but attracting more businesses to the state. Culotti said she would do so by reducing taxes to attract more than 100,000 businesses, leading to more jobs and more tax revenue.

Hilton said he would address affordability and businesses’ exodus from the state by opening up more oil and gas exploration, something he said could be done by executive order and by “kicking out all the climate fanatics” that California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) placed in key positions in the government.

“Right now, they are denying the industry permits for every aspect of [oil and gas] operating in California, whether that’s maintaining existing wells or expanding them, or drilling new ones — all of that,” Hilton said.

RELATED: California’s next dumb tech idea: Show your papers to scroll

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Hilton and Culotti also discussed the positive aspects of having a governor in Sacramento who could work with the Trump administration to implement a forest management plan that would help prevent devastating wildfires while providing billions more in federal funds to help the Palisades and Eaton wildfire victims rebuild.

“Whatever happens in the 2028 presidential election, we know we’re going to have two years where the next governor will overlap with the Trump administration,” Hilton said. “And that’s one of the things I’m most excited about. I’ve got good, good relationships with, you know, half the Cabinet.”

No one asked Hilton how he will contend with deep animosity toward Trump in a state where the number of registered Democratic voters outnumber Republicans nearly two to one.

Instead Hilton said he would prefer that Bianco drop out so he could consolidate the Republican support while working to turn out independents and Republicans in November in an election that includes ballot initiatives to institute voter ID and to maintain Proposition 13, a state constitutional amendment that imposes strict limits on property tax increases.

“You’ve got people in charge now who just don’t think like this, and as we saw with the debate nonsense and raising the race card … they’re just on a different planet,” Hilton said. “But the underlying answer to how you deliver all of these things is just to take a sledgehammer to the massive, bloated nanny-state bureaucracy that is making everything so expensive and so difficult.”

Editor’s note: This article was originally published by RealClearPolitics and made available via RealClearWire.

​California, Gop, Democrats, Governor race, Primary, Steve hilton, University of southern california, Candidates, California democrats, Trump, Midterms, Opinion & analysis, Chad bianco, Xavier becerra, Eric swalwell, Elaine culotti, Rusty hicks, Debate, Tony thurmond, Racism accusation 

One of the most scandal-ridden former mayors in America is attempting to resurrect her political career, moving to a new state and a new party.

On March 11, Tiffany Henyard — the former Democratic mayor of Dolton, Illinois, and former supervisor of nearby Thornton Township — announced in a Facebook video that she had moved to Fulton County, Georgia.

‘You can’t expect change without making a change.’

“Y’all ain’t ready,” she says confidently in the video, claiming her political opponents and members of the media are “obsessed” with her and that “corruption” was rampant in Dolton and Thornton Township.

In the video, she also teases a “big announcement” that she would be making a couple of days later.

RELATED: Chicago-area village credit cards frozen, deputy chief laid off as Lightfoot concludes investigation into controversial mayor

To the surprise of very few, news soon broke that Henyard is running for political office yet again. This time, she is running to be a Fulton County commissioner — as a Republican, according to the Georgia secretary of state website.

The records indicate Henyard qualified to run on March 5. They also list her occupation as “business owner.”

Four other candidates qualified to run for the District 5 commissioner’s seat that same week, all as Democrats. The seat is currently held by Democrat Marvin Arrington Jr., who is running to be chair of the Board of Commissioners.

The 2026 Georgia primary election is scheduled for May 19.

Henyard claims in the video that change is needed in Fulton County. “The residents are tired,” she says. “They’re looking for a new leader. They’re looking for new leadership.”

Henyard also said she has a responsibility “to reach across the aisle, let alone walk across the aisle.”

“You can’t expect change without making a change,” she notes in the video.

The Fulton County Republican Party did not respond to a request for comment from Blaze News.

Henyard, whose official X handle is @tif4president, leaves a trail of scandals in her wake. Her tenure as Dolton mayor was plagued with slashed budgets, accusations of lavish spending and other misconduct, an FBI investigation, and even an all-out brawl at a public meeting.

She subsequently lost the Democratic mayoral primary in February 2025, receiving just 536 votes out of the 4,446 ballots cast.

Many of her constituents celebrated her loss:

“The Wicked Witch of the West is dead! It’s over,” said one.”I praise God. That’s all I have to say. Ding, dong, the witch is gone!” said another.”If I can do a backwards hand flip right now — and I’m 67 years old next month — I would definitely do it,” added yet another resident.

Earlier this month, a judge ordered Henyard to pay a former landlord $10,000 in connection with a rental dispute in Illinois after she failed to appear in court. Her attorney indicated to WGN that she missed the hearing because she was out of state and that she denies wrongdoing.

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