Uniform, Rank, and the Ballot Box: Reserve Officers, Political Campaigns, and DoDD 1344.10

Navy 'looking into' Campa-Najjar's use of military status in campaign | KPBS Public Media

Civil–Military Relations  /  Law & Policy

Bottom Line Up Front 

The Navy has opened an inquiry into whether Lt. j.g. Ammar Campa-Najjar, a Reserve public affairs officer running for Congress in California's 48th District, has violated DoD Directive 1344.10 by failing to consistently identify his reserve status, displaying uniform photographs as primary campaign imagery, and depicting an outdated rank across campaign materials. The case arrives amid a high-stakes, heavily redistributed congressional contest between two San Diego-area candidates with Navy credentials — Campa-Najjar (D) and retired naval aviator Jim Desmond (R) — in a region hosting the nation's largest military community. The regulatory framework governing reservists who run for office is clear but routinely misunderstood, and the enforcement record is thin. Whether or not the inquiry results in formal action, the episode illustrates the enduring tension between the citizen-soldier ideal and the constitutional imperative of military apoliticality.

Civil–Military Relations

A Navy inquiry into a San Diego congressional candidate exposes the ambiguities — and the high stakes — of regulations governing how reservists may present their military service in partisan campaigns.

Analysis by the Editors  |  San Diego, California  |  25 March 2026

The Inquiry

On 24 March 2026, KPBS — San Diego's public media station — reported that the United States Navy has confirmed it is "looking into the matter" of Lt. j.g. Ammar Campa-Najjar's use of his military status and uniform photographs in his campaign for California's newly redrawn 48th Congressional District.¹ The confirmation followed reporting first published on 13 March 2026 by LaPrensa San Diego, which raised questions about the campaign's compliance with Department of Defense directives governing political activity by reserve-component personnel.

Campa-Najjar, a Democrat and Navy Reserve public affairs officer assigned to Naval Air Station North Island, Coronado, commissioned in 2023 via a direct commission — an uncommon pathway that bypasses Officer Candidate School and allows certain professionals to enter the Reserve as commissioned officers.² Although Navy records indicate he was promoted to Lieutenant, junior grade, in June 2025, all uniform photographs found on his campaign website and social media by KPBS depicted him at his prior rank of Ensign.¹

The campaign's website and prior filings with the San Diego County Registrar of Voters also identified Campa-Najjar simply as a "Navy Officer" rather than a "Navy Reserve Officer" — a distinction that is not merely semantic under DoD Directive 1344.10. Following complaints from a rival campaign and KPBS's inquiry, the campaign updated both the website and its official statement of qualifications with the Registrar to reflect his reserve status. San Diego County spokesperson Antonia Hutzell confirmed that the change was made voluntarily "to reflect the status of 'reserve' per DoD Directive 1344.10 Section 4.3.1.1."¹

The Regulatory Framework

The governing document is Department of Defense Directive 1344.10, Political Activities by Members of the Armed Forces, issued 19 February 2008 and still in force. The Directive applies broadly — to active-duty members, Reserve Component members not on active duty, National Guard members in a non-federal status, and retired members.³ Its animating principle is simple but carries significant legal weight: the armed forces must remain apolitical, and no activity by a service member should reasonably be viewed as associating the Department of Defense with a partisan political campaign.⁴

Key Provisions of DoDD 1344.10 Applicable to Reserve Candidates

• Para. 4.3.1.1 — Reserve Status Disclosure: A reserve-component member who is a nominee or candidate for civil office must "clearly indicate their retired or reserve status" whenever referencing their military rank, grade, or service affiliation.
• Para. 4.3.1.2 — Non-Endorsement Disclaimer: All campaign materials referencing military affiliation must include a "prominently displayed disclaimer" that the member's use of rank and photographs does not imply DoD endorsement (e.g., "[Name] is a member of the U.S. Navy Reserve. Use of military rank, job titles, and photographs in uniform does not imply endorsement by the Department of the Navy or the DoD").
• Para. 4.3.1.3 — Primary Graphic Representation: Uniform photographs may appear in campaign literature only when displayed alongside other nonmilitary biographical details, and must not be "the primary graphic representation in any campaign media, such as a billboard, brochure, flyer, Web site, or television commercial."
• Para. 4.3.1 — Accurate Depiction: Any photograph in uniform must accurately reflect the member's actual performance of duty and current rank insignia.
• Para. 4.1.5 — Catch-All Provision: Any activity "that may be reasonably viewed as directly or indirectly associating the Department of Defense with a partisan political activity or is otherwise contrary to the spirit and intention of this Directive shall be avoided."

The Directive does not prohibit reserve-component members from running for partisan office. Reservists not on active duty have substantially more latitude than their active-duty counterparts, who are broadly prohibited from campaigning.⁵ What the Directive does prohibit, consistently and explicitly, is the use of military identity in ways that blur the line between the individual's private political ambition and the institution of the Navy itself.

The Department of Defense Standards of Conduct Office's own FAQ on military political activity is unambiguous on the photograph question: a uniform photograph on page three of a brochure among other life photographs is acceptable; that same photograph "front and center on page one" is not.⁶ The authoritative legal commentary in the record, published in the Army JAG Corps' Military Law Review tradition, describes the uniform photograph provision as specifically targeted at preventing the inference of institutional endorsement through visual prominence.⁷

"His page, his campaign, everything kind of makes it sound like he's active duty Navy or was active duty Navy, when the reality is as far from it as possible. Just be honest about your service." — Mark Ball, Navy veteran and graduate student, University of San Francisco

The Specific Allegations

Critics and veterans who spoke with KPBS identified at least three regulatory concerns with the Campa-Najjar campaign as originally constituted:

Reserve status omission. The campaign website's "About" page identified him as a "Navy Officer" — not a "Navy Reserve officer" — in direct conflict with the disclosure requirement of Para. 4.3.1.1. Similarly, his official candidate statement with the San Diego County Registrar listed his occupation as "U.S. Navy Officer," language that was subsequently corrected after a rival campaign's complaint.¹ The plain-language requirement of the Directive is that reserve status must be "clearly indicated," not merely determinable through background research.

Uniform as primary graphic representation. Uniform photographs of Campa-Najjar featured prominently on the landing areas of his campaign website and across his social media platforms — the precise configuration the Directive addresses in Para. 4.3.1.3. The Free Library's legal analysis of the 2008 updated Directive notes that "placing the military photograph front and center on page one of the brochure is not acceptable" — an analog directly applicable to above-the-fold website placement.⁷

Inaccurate rank depiction. Every uniform photograph circulated by the campaign as of the date of KPBS's reporting showed Campa-Najjar in his Ensign insignia, despite his promotion to Lieutenant, junior grade, in June 2025 — a gap of at least nine months. The Directive requires that photographs "accurately reflect the member's actual performance of duty."⁶

The campaign's position, stated by campaign manager Andi McNew, is that Campa-Najjar "has been compliant with DoD directives on permissible political activity" and that "the Navy has not requested any changes be made."¹ The campaign also noted that Campa-Najjar's commanding officer had praised him for leading a unit-wide training on Directive 1344.10 focused on maintaining the military's apolitical posture — an irony that observers have noted.¹

San Diego's Military Electorate and Political Stakes

The case does not unfold in a vacuum. California's 48th Congressional District, recently redrawn under Proposition 50 to encompass portions of suburban San Diego and Riverside counties — including Escondido, Vista, San Marcos, Temecula, Hemet, and Palm Springs — sits at the geographic center of the nation's largest military community.⁸

The district's leading Republican candidate, San Diego County Supervisor Jim Desmond, is himself a Navy veteran, having served as an aircraft electrician from 1974 to 1979 before pursuing a career as a commercial airline pilot.⁹ Issa endorsed Desmond as "a true patriot, a Navy veteran, a successful businessman, and a 20-year record of public service" upon announcing his retirement from Congress.¹⁰ Desmond's campaign emphasizes his veteran credentials in a largely biographical manner, identifying him as a "U.S. Navy Veteran" rather than as a current-status officer — a distinction that carries no regulatory implications since he is not currently serving in any military capacity.

Campa-Najjar leads a crowded Democratic primary field that also includes San Diego City Councilmember Marni Von Wilpert, Vista City Councilmember Corinna Contreras, and economist Brandon Riker.¹¹ With voter registration now favoring Democrats under the redrawn map and the district rated as leaning Democratic by the University of Virginia Center for Politics, the June 2 primary is likely to determine who holds the seat.¹²

Military and veteran voters in San Diego are not a monolithic bloc, but they are sophisticated consumers of service-related political messaging. Brian VanRiper, a Marine veteran and Democratic campaign consultant who ran veteran outreach for Barack Obama's 2008 Iowa campaign, noted that "veterans can immediately smell this out quickly" when a candidate inflates or misrepresents military experience.¹ In a district touching Naval Base San Diego, MCAS Miramar, Camp Pendleton, and Coronado, that demographic attentiveness is not abstract.

"There's a reason why I say I did almost 10 years and the last two was as a reservist. The general public's not going to know the difference, but the veterans or military community will know the difference." — Mark Ball, Navy veteran, University of San Francisco

The Direct Commission and Its Context

Campa-Najjar's path into the Navy Reserve merits examination in its own right. He entered in 2023 via direct commission — a selective program that allows professionals with specific expertise (typically law, medicine, chaplaincy, or public affairs) to receive an officer commission without attending Officer Candidate School or the Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps.¹ His commission was in the Navy Reserve's public affairs community, a designation consistent with his background as a Department of Labor public affairs officer under the Obama administration.

His campaign emphasized that he has served on active-duty orders, including "a forward mobilization in support of a major joint exercise in the Indo-Pacific alongside U.S. and allied forces."¹ That experience is genuine service and is not in dispute. What is at issue is how that service is characterized. Marine Corps veteran and former Escondido mayor Paul McNamara articulated the principle at stake: "I think there are limits to how much a veteran should use that status in an election campaign. Political contests should be decided on issues and ideas that are substantive and not performative images."¹

The timing of Campa-Najjar's commission — 2023, following three unsuccessful campaigns for federal and local office in 2018, 2020, and 2022 — has drawn comment from critics and some Democrats who contend his candidacy reflects political calculation more than military vocation. "In what world is this district that I ran in, almost won, now suddenly become a winnable district?" Campa-Najjar has himself said, describing how his decision to run again followed California's mid-decade redistricting.¹³

Enforcement: The Historical Record

The question of what consequences, if any, flow from a finding of noncompliance is not straightforward. The Directive's enforcement mechanism ultimately rests on the chain of command. Violations of DoDD 1344.10 can constitute a failure to obey a lawful order under Article 92 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, a potentially serious offense.⁵ In practice, however, enforcement has been inconsistent and typically administrative rather than punitive.

DVIDS documented a 2012 instance in which an Army Reserve soldier in uniform appeared at Ron Paul's Iowa Caucus headquarters to endorse the candidate; the Army confirmed a potential rules violation but the outcome was administrative only, with the service noting the soldier "stands alone in his opinions."¹⁴ A 2004 case involving an Army commander who appeared onstage in uniform at a George W. Bush political rally at Fort McCoy resulted only in an Army inquiry finding, with no reported court-martial or formal discipline.⁷

The structural challenge is that the Navy's interest in adjudicating the political activities of a reserve officer is inherently limited: the reserve force relies heavily on the goodwill of citizen-soldiers, and the prospect of disciplinary action against a congressional candidate generates institutional risk of its own. The most likely outcome of the current inquiry, should the Navy find technical violations, is corrective action — updated materials, formal counseling — rather than referral to judicial proceedings.

The campaign's preemptive corrections — updating the website and the Registrar filing — may also complicate any finding of ongoing noncompliance, though they do not retroactively address the prior presentation of materials.

The Apolitical Principle and Its Institutional Logic

The restrictions of DoDD 1344.10 are not arbitrary bureaucratic rules. They flow directly from the foundational American constitutional principle of civilian control of the military — the insistence that the armed forces serve the nation as an institution, not as a partisan constituency or a credential factory for political ambition.

The Directive's "catch-all" provision at Para. 4.1.5 captures this logic most completely: any activity that "may be reasonably viewed as directly or indirectly associating the Department of Defense with a partisan political activity" is to be avoided, even if not explicitly prohibited. The DoD Standards of Conduct Office FAQ advises: "Always speak with your chain of command or a Judge Advocate to determine if a specific activity is permissible."⁶

The DoD's position, articulated through multiple official guidance documents and the Defense Visual Information Distribution Service, is that the rules "are designed to prevent military members' participation in political activities that imply — or even appear to imply — official sponsorship, approval or endorsement" by the department.³ The appearance standard — not merely actual endorsement, but reasonable appearance of endorsement — is a deliberately low threshold, because public trust in the military's institutional neutrality is fragile and nonrenewable.

Former Escondido mayor and Marine veteran Paul McNamara identified the civil–military dimension precisely: "One distinguishing principle of the U.S. is civilian control of the military — a separation that should be clear to those seeking public office."¹ A congressional candidate who is simultaneously a uniformed officer — even in the reserve — inhabits an inherent tension. The Directive exists to manage, not eliminate, that tension.

Sidebar  /  Personnel & Policy

The Fairy Godmother Desk: How the DCO Program Works — and Who Benefits

Among Fleet veterans and working-class reservists, the Navy Reserve's Direct Commission Officer (DCO) program for Public Affairs Officers has earned a sardonic nickname: the fairy godmother desk at BUPERS. The program is legitimate, congressionally authorized, and serves a genuine institutional need. It is also, structurally, one of the most politically convenient pathways into uniform available anywhere in the U.S. military.

What the Program Requires

• Authority 10 U.S.C. §§12201–12209; Prog. Auth. 203
• Age at Commission 21–40 (no waiver for non-prior service)
• OCS Required? No — 5-week Officer Development School, Newport
• Designator 1655 Restricted Line (Public Affairs)
• Prior Service Not required — civilian credentials substitute
• Entry Rank Ensign (O-1), regardless of civilian seniority

Campa-Najjar met every published criterion: U.S. citizen, bachelor's degree, under 40, with substantial public affairs credentials from the Obama White House, Department of Labor, and the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. His trilingual fluency in English, Spanish, and Arabic — directly relevant to INDOPACOM public affairs operations — appears to have been an additional asset for the selection board.

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The Timeline That Raises Questions

• 2018Lost congressional race to Rep. Duncan Hunter (–3.4 pts). Hunter branded him a "security risk" at a press conference aboard USS Midway.
• 2020Lost congressional race to Rep. Darrell Issa (–8 pts).
• 2022Lost Chula Vista mayoral race to John McCann.
• Aug. 2023Applied for and received Reserve DCO commission as Ensign (designator 1655). Sworn in aboard USS Midway — the same vessel where Hunter attacked him in 2018.
• Jun. 2025Promoted to Lieutenant, j.g. (O-2) — a purely administrative, time-in-grade action under ROPMA requiring approximately 18 months as Ensign. No competitive selection board. Selection rate is effectively 100% for officers with no adverse record. Requires a pulse and a clean service jacket, not demonstrated excellence.
• Aug. 2025Filed exploratory committee for CA-48 the moment Prop. 50 redistricting appeared probable.
• 2026Running for Congress with uniform as primary campaign imagery.

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What His "Active Duty" Actually Was

The campaign described Campa-Najjar's active service as "a forward mobilization in support of a major joint exercise in the Indo-Pacific alongside U.S. and allied forces." In plain institutional language, this describes Annual Training (AT) or Additional Duty (ADSW) orders to support a Pacific Fleet exercise — standard annual training for any Reserve PAO officer assigned to the Coronado public affairs office. Exercises such as RIMPAC, Talisman Saber, or Valiant Shield routinely require public affairs augmentation from reserve components. The duration is typically two to four weeks. It is meaningful reserve participation. It is not a combat deployment or a sustained individual augmentee (IA) assignment of the kind that took thousands of Reserve officers to Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Horn of Africa.

The campaign also cited a commanding officer's fitness report praising Campa-Najjar's "outstanding performance" in connection with his promotion to LTJG. That framing will land with weight for a civilian audience. Fleet veterans will recognize it differently: promotion from O-1 to O-2 under ROPMA involves no competitive selection board whatsoever. The selection rate is effectively 100% for any officer without an adverse record. The fit-rep praise is genuine; the promotion it accompanied required approximately 18 months of time-in-grade and the absence of a court-martial. Real competitive scrutiny begins at O-3 and becomes genuinely consequential at O-4 — boards that, should he win election to Congress, he would face while simultaneously serving as a sitting member of the House, a conflict-of-interest tangle that would almost certainly require him to request inactive reserve status.

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Conclusion

The Equity Problem

The DCO program's structural advantages are not lost on the Fleet. A prior-enlisted sailor who spent four years in the surface warfare community, separated, earned a degree, and wants to commission as a Reserve officer must compete for a limited number of OCS slots, attend a 12-week program, and fight for billets in a competitive detailing market. A civilian communications professional with the right résumé can bypass all of that through the DCO pipeline, commission at O-1, and draw a coveted shore billet at a major installation — often close to home.

The program exists because the Navy genuinely needs the skills. But the combination of a post-electoral timing, a high-profile shore billet, and aggressive campaign use of the resulting uniform credential is precisely the kind of scenario that makes working-class veterans feel that military service is being leveraged as a political accessory rather than honored as a civic obligation.

"There's a reason why I say I did almost 10 years and the last two was as a reservist. The general public's not going to know the difference, but the veterans or military community will know the difference." — Mark Ball, Navy veteran, University of San Francisco

Sources: MyNavyHR Prog. Auth. 203 (May 2024); Wikipedia, U.S. Navy Reserve (DCO section); KPBS (24 March 2026); Times of San Diego (1 Sept. 2023; 30 Aug. 2025); NOTUS (March 2026).

The Navy's inquiry into Lt. j.g. Campa-Najjar's campaign practices is not, in isolation, a seismic event. Regulatory gray zones in the reserve-officer political candidacy space arise in every election cycle, and the Directive has rarely produced dramatic enforcement consequences. What the case does illuminate — with particular clarity given its geography — is the ongoing challenge of maintaining meaningful civil-military boundaries in an era when military service has become a broadly valued political credential.

San Diego is not just any congressional district. It is the nation's premier military city, home to more uniformed personnel and veterans than any comparable metropolitan area. In that context, the signals that candidates send about the nature and extent of their service carry weight disproportionate to their regulatory import. The voters of the 48th District will ultimately render their own judgment — in the June 2 primary and, if necessary, in November — about what constitutes genuine service and what constitutes performative military identity.

What the regulatory record makes clear is that DoDD 1344.10 was crafted precisely to ensure that judgment belongs to civilian voters, not to the uniform itself.

Verified Sources and Formal Citations

1. [1] Dyer, Andrew. "Navy 'Looking Into' Campa-Najjar's Use of Military Status in Campaign." KPBS Public Media, 24 March 2026.
   https://www.kpbs.org/news/military/2026/03/24/navy-looking-into-campa-najjars-use-of-military-status-in-campaign
2. [2] "Ammar Campa-Najjar." Wikipedia, accessed 25 March 2026.
   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ammar_Campa-Najjar
3. [3] Miles, Donna. "Rules Restrict Political Activity by DoD Personnel." Defense Visual Information Distribution Service (DVIDS) / American Forces Press Service.
   https://www.dvidshub.net/news/511702/rules-restrict-political-activity-dod-personnel
4. [4] Department of Defense. DoD Directive 1344.10: Political Activities by Members of the Armed Forces. 19 February 2008 (current version). USD(P&R).
   https://www.esd.whs.mil/Portals/54/Documents/DD/issuances/dodd/134410p.pdf
5. [5] Shumake, Col. Shawn (USA). Quoted in: "New Directive Contains Political Activity Rules for Servicemembers." DVIDS / American Forces Press Service.
   https://www.dvidshub.net/news/523127/new-directive-contains-political-activity-rules-servicemembers
6. [6] Department of Defense Standards of Conduct Office. Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) About Political Activities by Members of the Armed Forces, 2024.
   https://dodsoco.ogc.osd.mil/Portals/102/Documents/Political%20Activities%20Docs/2024%20FAQs%20_Military.pdf
7. [7] "Limitations on the Wearing of the Uniform by Members of the Armed Services at Non-Military Events." The Free Library / Military Law Review (legal analysis citing DoDD 1344.10 para. 4.3).
   https://www.thefreelibrary.com/Limitations+on+the+wearing+of+the+uniform+by+members+of+the+Armed...-a0181227703
8. [8] VoteVets. "Ammar Campa-Najjar." Candidate profile, December 2025.
   https://votevets.org/candidates/ammar-campa-najjar
9. [9] "Jim Desmond." Wikipedia, accessed 25 March 2026.
   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Desmond
10. [10] "Issa Retires, Shaking Up Political Map While Endorsing Desmond in His Shift to 48th District." Times of San Diego, 6 March 2026.
    https://timesofsandiego.com/politics/2026/03/06/desmond-issa-48th-district-reelection-retirement/
11. [11] "North County Report: Congressional Musical Chairs." Voice of San Diego, 11 March 2026.
    https://voiceofsandiego.org/2026/03/11/north-county-report-congressional-musical-chairs/
12. [12] Campa-Najjar for Congress. Official campaign website, accessed 25 March 2026.
    https://www.ammarforcongress.com
13. [13] "'My Last Chance': Perennial Candidate Ammar Campa-Najjar Believes He Can Finally Win an Election." NOTUS, March 2026.
    https://www.notus.org/2026-election/ammar-campa-najjar-midterm-democrats
14. [14] "Rules Restrict Political Activity by DoD Personnel." DVIDS (covering 2012 Iowa Caucus Army Reserve incident).
    https://www.dvidshub.net/news/511702/rules-restrict-political-activity-dod-personnel
15. [15] DoD Standards of Conduct Office. Political Activity and DoDD 1344.10 — 2024 Deskbook Presentation.
    https://dodsoco.ogc.osd.mil/Portals/102/Documents/Deskbook%20Presentation/2024%20Political%20Activity%20Hatch%20Act%20and%20DoDD%201344.10.pdf
16. [16] Navy Public Affairs Policy Guidance Concerning Political Campaigns and Elections (via Navy.mil, released by Vice Admiral R. L. Thomas, Director, Navy Staff).
    https://www.navy.mil/DesktopModules/ArticleCS/Print.aspx?PortalId=1&ModuleId=791&Article=2235848
17. [17] Ballotpedia. "Ammar Campa-Najjar." Candidate profile, accessed 25 March 2026.
    https://ballotpedia.org/Ammar_Campa-Najjar
18. [18] San Diego County Registrar of Voters. Candidate statement update, March 2026 (as reported by KPBS and confirmed by county spokesperson Antonia Hutzell).

© 2026 U.S. Naval Institute  |  Proceedings  |  Annapolis, Maryland  |  This article reflects editorial analysis and does not constitute legal advice. All personnel should consult their chain of command or a Judge Advocate regarding specific political activity questions.