Darrell Issa headed back to Congress after defeating Ammar Campa-Najjar

Former California Republican US Rep. Darrell Issa is victorious in his race to return to Congress where he once headed the powerful House Oversight and Government Reform Committee and became a GOP favorite for launching a string of investigations of the Obama administration.

The former nine-term congressman and ardent supporter of US President Donald Trump trailed early in the San Diego-area 50th District. But as more votes were counted after Election Day, he overtook Democrat Ammar Campa-Najjar. The latest vote count update gave him about 54% of the votes and a 23,000-vote lead.

Both candidates are of Arab American heritage.

Issa’s father was a Lebanese American of the Maronite Catholic faith.

Campa-Najjar, whose father is a Palestinian Muslim and mother a Mexican-American Catholic spent part of his childhood in Gaza and is fluent in Spanish and Arabic.

Campa-Najjar has made clear that he has no personal connection to his grandfather, Muhammad Yusuf al-Najjar who was a mastermind of the terrorist murder of 11 Israeli Olympic athletes and coaches at the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich, Germany. Al-Najjar was assassinated a year later by Israeli commandos.

— TOI Staff and AP