Hawzah News Agency (California, US) - While candidates Ammar Campa-Najjar (D) and Omar Qudrat (R) are running as challengers in southern California’s 50th and 43^rd Districts respectively, and both come from Muslim heritage with Qudrat proudly noting his Afghani immigrant parents on his web site, that’s where most of the similarities end.

With the candidates’ respective districts around San Diego with its large Navy population, military issues abound on both the candidates’ websites.  Quadrat is a veteran, serving on behalf of the US in Afghanistan (the country in which his parents were born and from which they emigrated to the US decades ago) and makes a special point to advocate for veteran affairs.   Campa-Najjar addresses veteran affairs and adds to that issues more aligned with a liberal viewpoint including transgender and gay and lesbian people serving in the military.  

In addition to military issues, Campa-Najjar’s positions focus on women’s rights, healthcare, jobs, immigration, environment, election reform and education. Qudrat has a leaner and more targeted agenda including defending the nation, education, the economy, and homelessness.

With the exception of Qudrat’s focus on defending the nation as it relates to terror and other challenges, neither candidate focuses substantially on international issues.

Both candidates speak of not being bound to their party, and/or disagreeing with their party leadership on certain things, and focus on representing their respective districts.   While there are many important domestic and international issues that each could focus on, living in Israel with a degree in Middle Eastern affairs, I often look at candidates and their platforms through the prism of how it relates to Israel and the Middle East because that’s what I know most about, and that’s what I am most qualified to measure another person’s knowledge and subsequent policies.  However, I also know that middle Eastern Affairs are integrally related to other global issues, to economic issues, etc., so I am not a single-issue voter by any stretch.