Adam Hamawy: The surgeon who saved a U.S. senator's life in Baghdad becomes the first Muslim to represent New Jersey in Congress

Mahjar Post - New York

Analytical report

At 8:26 p.m. on Tuesday, November 3, 2026, just 26 minutes after polls closed, the Associated Press called New Jersey's 12th District race for Democrat Adam Hisham Hamawy, making him the first Muslim in the state's history to represent it in the U.S. Congress. With about 93 percent of votes counted, Hamawy had 160,586 votes, or 70.2 percent, against 64,797, or 28.3 percent, for his Republican opponent, attorney Gregg Mele, a margin approaching 42 percentage points. These figures remain unofficial: New Jersey's Division of Elections does not publish election-night results, and final certification comes in late November, although the outcome is settled and cannot be reversed.

Hamawy, 56 or 57 (sources differ on whether he was born in 1969 or 1970), succeeds Democratic Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman, who announced her retirement on November 10, 2025, after about 50 years of public service. She was the first Black woman to represent New Jersey in Congress. The seat thus passes from one barrier-breaker to another. Hamawy begins his term in January 2027 as one of three new representatives from the state in a Congress that election-night reports said Democrats had reclaimed.

Who is Adam Hamawy?

Hamawy was born in Egypt to Egyptian immigrant parents and arrived in New Jersey as a seven-month-old infant. His campaign biography says: "When I was just seven months old, my family came to New Jersey in search of a shot at the American dream. I grew up in Plainfield and Old Bridge and attended public schools." He grew up in a working immigrant family and joined the New Jersey Army National Guard in 1989 to help pay for his education at Rutgers University, where he earned a biology degree in 1991. He received his medical degree from New Jersey Medical School in 1996, completed a general surgery residency at Weill Cornell Medical Center in New York and training in reconstructive and plastic surgery at UT Southwestern in Dallas, then earned an MBA from Rutgers-Camden in 2018 while practicing privately.

His professional career is his foremost political asset. He served eight years on active duty in the U.S. Army Medical Corps and retired in 2011 as a lieutenant colonel. In Iraq, between May 2004 and February 2005, he worked as a combat trauma surgeon at the 31st Combat Support Hospital in Baghdad. His patients included military pilot Tammy Duckworth, whose helicopter was shot down in November 2004. Duckworth, now the Democratic senator from Illinois, says: "When I was wounded, I was in front of him within 20 minutes; he is the doctor who not only saved my life but was able to prevent me from becoming a triple amputee, using a vascular procedure he had only just learned in medical school." Earlier, Hamawy was a surgical resident in New York on September 11, 2001, treating attack victims and rescue workers at a field hospital at Ground Zero. In 2013 he founded his private practice, Princeton Plastic Surgeons, and he works as an on-call surgeon in the emergency departments of Penn Medicine Princeton and Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick.

Over roughly 30 years, he has joined humanitarian medical missions, from Bosnia in 1994 while still a medical student to Haiti after the 2010 earthquake, Sudan, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey and elsewhere, reaching Gaza in May 2024. There, according to his account, his team performed 120 operations in three weeks, more than half on children. He returned in 2025. In May 2024, when Israel took control of the Rafah crossing and his team was stranded, he was one of three doctors who refused evacuation that would leave their non-American colleagues behind. He said: "I cannot abandon the rest of my team, and as a former soldier I cannot abandon my fellow Americans." Duckworth intervened with the Biden administration and the Israeli ambassador to help get the team out.

Hamawy had never held public office or run in an election before this one. By the party establishment's standards, he is a fully fledged political newcomer. He announced his candidacy on January 15, 2026, with Duckworth endorsing him on day one. His only previous public connection was as Watson Coleman's guest at President Trump's 2025 address to Congress. In June 2024, he gave a congressional briefing on civilian casualties in Gaza, saying: "The level of civilian injuries is something I have never seen before."

The race: A primary that was the real election

The 12th District covers parts of Mercer, Middlesex, Somerset and Union counties and 32 municipalities, including the state capital, Trenton, Princeton and Plainfield. It has about 800,000 residents, approximately 39.8 percent White, 21.5 percent Latino, 19.4 percent Asian and 15.6 percent Black. About a third were born outside the United States, and median household income is roughly $114,000. Its Cook Partisan Voting Index is D+13, and Cook and Inside Elections rate it safe Democratic. Watson Coleman won it in 2024 by 22.5 points. In such a district, the general election is not the battle; the primary is.

Twelve active candidates contested the Democratic primary on June 2, 2026, with 13 names on the ballot. Each county party backed a different local official: Mercer supported Assemblywoman Verlina Reynolds-Jackson, Middlesex backed East Brunswick Mayor Brad Cohen, Somerset supported County Commissioner Shanel Robinson, and Union backed Plainfield Mayor Adrian Mapp. The abolition of New Jersey's county-line ballot system, which had given county-machine candidates a structural advantage, opened the door to an outsider to all the machines. Hamawy won 28.1 percent, rising to 28.6 percent in more complete tallies, roughly double the 14.9 percent of his nearest rival, Cohen. The remainder ranged from 9.3 to 1 percent. According to the New Jersey Globe's town-level analysis, Hamawy was strong almost everywhere, falling below 20 percent in only two towns, while each establishment rival remained confined to a county base. On primary night he said: "I think this is what people are looking for: someone who stands unequivocally for human rights and does not hesitate in his positions... People are looking for outsiders; they are tired of the establishment itself."

His Republican general-election opponent was Gregg Mele, 61, a lawyer who worked on Wall Street for 16 years before opening his own practice. A repeat candidate who ran for governor in 2021 and in other races, he sought his party's nomination unopposed. Mele emphasized lower taxes, restrained spending, stronger immigration enforcement and public safety. The general election was never competitive. In the Mercer County portion alone, Hamawy received 79.62 percent of the vote.

The money map: Millions in support, zero from AIPAC

Hamawy's campaign raised about $547,000 in the first quarter of 2026, then the largest sum in the field; $1,028,937 by May 13, according to Federal Election Commission records; more than $1.4 million by primary night, according to a campaign memo; and $2 million by October 14, according to the New Jersey Globe, most of which it spent. Mele, by contrast, raised only $101,520 by October 14, more than half from his own pocket.

The bigger story was outside spending. About $1.9 million was spent supporting Hamawy in the primary, including between $1.55 million and $1.6 million from American Priorities, a pro-Palestinian super PAC established in February 2026 specifically to counter the influence of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, AIPAC. Funded mainly by wealthy donors, many of them Muslim Americans in technology, it initially planned to spend about $2 million in this district as part of a cycle-wide pledge exceeding $10 million. Total independent spending in the district's primary was about $2.8 million. By contrast, no outside spending against Hamawy was found in FEC filings through primary day. AIPAC and its United Democracy Project spent zero dollars in the 12th District. A committee spokesperson told Jewish Insider it stayed out because it "didn't see a path to victory" in such a fragmented field. The New Jersey Globe adds that AIPAC had been hurt when its heavy spending in the 11th District's February 2026 special primary backfired. In the reading of Jewish Currents and other political-finance analyses, the district became the first test of a pro-Palestinian committee against the pro-Israel lobby. The new committee won almost without a fight because its opponent chose not to enter the battle. Despite AIPAC's financial absence, opposition to it remained central to Hamawy's campaign message.

His platform: "Healthcare, not bombs"

His central campaign slogan sums up his philosophy on allocating state resources: "Healthcare, not bombs." His website says: "We're told we can't afford healthcare. But there's always money for bombs... It is time we spend our resources on our communities instead." Everything below is quoted or summarized from his official priorities page unless otherwise indicated.

On health, he considers healthcare "a basic human right, not a privilege." He calls for universal single-payer Medicare for All with no out-of-pocket costs, covering dental, vision and hearing care. He wants Medicare empowered to negotiate prescription drug prices, pharmacy benefit managers curbed and hospital consolidation resisted. He supports the Medical Debt Cancellation Act to eliminate $220 billion in medical debt and seeks to address disparities in Black maternal deaths. He sees redirected spending, particularly cuts to what he describes as the Pentagon's nearly trillion-dollar budget, as a way to pay for these measures.

On the economy and cost of living, his diagnosis is: "The United States is the wealthiest country in the history of the world, but tens of millions of Americans are struggling to afford rent, childcare, healthcare, and groceries. That is not bad luck. It is the result of deliberate policy choices made by politicians who answer to billionaires and corporations." His proposals include at least 12 weeks of paid family and medical leave for every worker, universal childcare with decent wages for its workforce, restoring the expanded child tax credit that "cut child poverty nearly in half in one year, and then Congress let it expire," protecting and expanding Social Security and Medicare, supporting the PRO Act to protect union organizing, raising the minimum wage to a "living wage" without a specific figure on his website, and "taxing wealth, not just income" to fund health, education, housing and care. He also proposes breaking up monopolies, stronger antitrust laws, reparations and other measures to close the racial wealth gap, which he calls "the direct and accumulated legacy of slavery, Jim Crow laws, and redlining."

On Gaza and foreign policy, this is his defining issue. His website says: "In 2024 and 2025, I went on medical missions to Gaza. While bombs were falling, I treated patients. In three weeks, I treated more children than I have in all other warzones, combined... What I witnessed was a genocide, paid for with American tax dollars and propped up by our foreign policy." His proposals include major Pentagon budget cuts, restoring congressional war powers, strict enforcement of the Leahy laws and arms embargoes on countries violating human rights: "I support cutting military aid to these countries, including Israel." He calls for "justice for Palestinians and an end to apartheid in Israel," including support for the Palestinian right of return under international law; restoring USAID; rejoining the Paris climate agreement; and creating a Cabinet-level Department of Peacebuilding. There is a tonal difference worth noting. At an October general-election forum, MercerMe reported his call to "end military aid to Israel until concerns about compliance with international human rights standards are addressed," a softer, conditional formulation than the language of cuts and embargoes on his website. On antisemitism, he told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency it was "abhorrent" and he was "deeply concerned by its continued rise." He added: "In this country we have seen recent attacks on both a synagogue and mosques. I see our safety as intertwined." To Jewish voters who disagree with him on Israel, he said: "I hope we can still connect over shared values and goals, including peace, justice, safety and dignity."

On immigration, he goes to the furthest positions of the American left: "Abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and prosecuting its agents." His website says the agency "cannot be reformed. But abolishing the agency is not enough. In Congress, I will drag ICE agents and their bosses in the administration in front of committees to hold them to account. We must then prosecute them." He calls for dismantling the Department of Homeland Security, a pathway to citizenship, and protections for DACA recipients and mixed-status families. His framing is personal: "As an immigrant, I take this fight personally."

On other issues, he supports a Green New Deal, a rapid clean-energy transition, a civilian climate corps, "making polluters pay" and a fundamental shift in public transit. On housing, he backs the Homes Act to increase supply and renewed federal involvement in housing. On education, he proposes rebuilding and strengthening the Education Department, more public-school funding, a federal minimum teacher salary, universal free school meals, universal preschool for ages three and four, tuition-free public colleges and universities, and student-debt cancellation. On civil rights, he supports voting rights, combating discrimination in housing, lending, employment and healthcare, protecting religious minorities and LGBTQ equality, and defending speech, press freedom, protest and the right to boycott, specifically protecting campus speech about Gaza. On abortion: "Control over your own body should not depend on where you live... I support codifying the right to abortion in federal law. Politicians need to stay out of decisions between doctors and patients." On corruption and democratic reform, he rejects corporate PAC money ("People-powered campaign. No corporate PAC money") and calls for overturning Citizens United through publicly funded elections, disclosure of dark money and a constitutional amendment stating that "corporations are not people and money is not speech." He supports banning congressional stock trading, Supreme Court reform through a binding ethics code, term limits and expansion, restoring the Voting Rights Act, abolishing the Electoral College, and even prosecuting "corrupt, lawless officials: Trump and his Cabinet must be removed." His platform has a separate veterans section: protecting the VA from privatization, expanding mental healthcare and suicide prevention, ending veteran homelessness, and fully implementing the PACT Act on burn-pit exposure.

His ideas and political identity

Hamawy presents himself in terms of service rather than power: "I'm Dr. Adam Hamawy. Father, surgeon, veteran, and small business owner. I've dedicated my life to serving others, and I'm running for Congress... to build a government that works for you, not special interests." According to the New Jersey Globe, he entered the race as "by far the most progressive option." After winning the primary, he said a candidate could take "a very progressive approach without worrying about what the rest of the party will say, because it's about the people." On his lack of political experience, he said: "What we need are people with experiences from every walk of life: doctors, nurses, teachers, scientists... The House of Representatives is supposed to be people from the community." News reports say he declined to commit to supporting House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries, considering his party's congressional leadership to be "failing to rise to the moment."

Coverage consistently describes him as a "progressive" from his party's progressive wing, including CNN, the Associated Press and the New Jersey Globe, which called his primary win "a major victory for the left." Right-wing critics call him "far-left" and a "controversial progressive." He does not present himself as a democratic socialist and is not associated with Democratic Socialists of America (DSA). His positions are those of Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. The New Jersey Democrat summarized his platform as looking "as though Sanders or Ocasio-Cortez had written it." Prominent endorsers include Tammy Duckworth from day one and Bernie Sanders, whose endorsement said Hamawy "has courageously and honorably saved lives: as a first responder on 9/11, as a combat surgeon in Iraq, as a volunteer in hospitals under bombardment in Gaza, and in New Jersey emergency rooms... Status quo politics is broken, and we need bold leaders like him in Congress." Ocasio-Cortez, Pramila Jayapal, Ro Khanna, Maxwell Frost, Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar, Jamaal Bowman and Keith Ellison also endorsed him. Organizational supporters include the Congressional Progressive Caucus PAC, Justice Democrats, National Nurses United and CAIR Action, the political-action arm of America's largest Muslim civil-rights organization. Its executive director, Basim Elkarra, said: "At a time when our communities are calling for principled leadership and a renewed commitment to justice, equity, and human dignity, we are proud to endorse Dr. Hamawy." Watson Coleman remained neutral in the primary, then congratulated him and endorsed him in the general election.

The old wound: The Blind Sheikh and Bosnia

Hamawy's campaign had a wound that opponents repeatedly targeted. In the early 1990s, as a young college graduate beginning medical school, he associated with Egyptian preacher Omar Abdel-Rahman, known as the Blind Sheikh, who preached in New Jersey. He attended his lessons, visited his home, helped translate and accompanied him on a 13-hour drive to a Detroit conference. In 1995, he testified for the defense at Abdel-Rahman's federal trial, which ended in a seditious-conspiracy conviction involving plots against New York landmarks. Abdel-Rahman spent the rest of his life in federal prison and died in 2017. In summer 1994, Hamawy spent about five weeks delivering medical supplies in Bosnia with Benevolence International Foundation, which was identified after September 11 as an al-Qaeda-linked front and shut down. These facts are documented in multiple sources. There has been no report that Hamawy faced any criminal charge in either matter.

His response has remained consistent: Abdel-Rahman was "one of very few religious figures in what was then a very small Muslim community in New Jersey"; he "condemns that man's violent rhetoric and actions and all violence, hatred and terrorism"; he had no contact with him after his arrest; and the Bosnia work was suggested by the Bosnian mission and carried out through a U.N.-approved route while he was a young medical student and member of the U.S. military. He calls the attacks "unfair and racist" guilt by association. He said: "To imply that, simply because I am Muslim, I would not be loyal to my country is absurd given my history... My patriotism is clear." He compared the formulation to its implicit equation: "If you attack Israel, you must be a terrorist; if you are Muslim, you must be a terrorist."

After his primary victory, the attacks went national. Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson wrote that Hamawy was "an al-Qaeda-linked Democrat." Rep. Anna Paulina Luna called him "a national security threat," and Democratic Rep. Jared Moskowitz expressed concerns about his values. Before the primary, New Jersey Democratic Rep. Josh Gottheimer had expressed "serious questions and deep concerns about his associations," and his rival, Mayor Adrian Mapp, called him a "radical extremist." Hamawy's primary-night response became the best-known statement of his political career: "My family was attacked, my values questioned, and my patriotism spit on... There was a time when these tactics worked, when racist and anti-Muslim attacks would turn an election. But tonight we proved that this era of American politics is over." He also said: "We proved in New Jersey once and for all that there is no such thing as progressive except for Palestine." The crowd then chanted, "Free Palestine."

Why did voters choose him? An analysis separating evidence from inference

This analysis ranks the factors from the most firmly documented to those closest to inference.

First: Structure. The strongest factor is documented by numbers rather than impressions: a safe Democratic district that had elected the party's candidate by margins exceeding 20 points. The large November victory, 70.2 percent, is within the district's normal range, widened by a broader wave. Put differently, "Why did he win in November?" is almost a false question. The real question is "Why did he win in June?" because whoever wins this district's primary wins the seat.

Second: A fragmented establishment and a united progressive wing. Four establishment candidates split the county and regional machines' votes, with 14.9 percent for one and others in the 8-to-9-percent range. Hamawy united national and local progressives behind him, with endorsements from Sanders, Ocasio-Cortez, Duckworth and major organizations, the largest campaign treasury in the field, and about $1.9 million in supportive outside spending. With the county-line system abolished, an outsider could win with a plurality of only 28 percent. Critics use that point to question the size of his "mandate," since 72 percent of primary voters chose someone else. He achieved this through broad geographic support rather than a single local base, setting him apart from every rival.

Third: Money for visibility. Internal campaign polling reported by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency put Hamawy at 5 percent and fourth place in late March and early April, before American Priorities' advertising, then at 19 percent and in the lead in early May afterward. The New Jersey Globe credits the committee with putting "Hamawy's smiling face and progressive policy proposals" on voters' screens "before any of his opponents even realized he was a serious threat." He faced no funded negative campaign in the primary: no rival spent to bring down his popularity, most avoided direct attacks, and AIPAC was entirely absent. In terms of funding and attack, his primary took place in a one-sided vacuum.

Fourth: The state and national climate, documented context rather than a district-level measure. In November, Hamawy rode a New Jersey Democratic wave that the New Jersey Globe called "a devastating rejection of Donald Trump's second presidency." Republicans Van Drew and Kean lost their seats, county boards flipped, more than 2.8 million ballots were cast statewide, and by election-day afternoon Democrats retained a turnout advantage by party registration exceeding 530,000 votes. A Fairleigh Dickinson University poll of 805 likely state voters, October 16-22, put Democrats ahead 55 to 32 on the generic congressional ballot. Ninety percent said the cost of living mattered to their vote, and 87 percent focused on gasoline prices. Trump's state approval was only 29 percent. The share identifying as MAGA fell from 27 percent in January 2024 to 10 percent. Democrats led 63 to 20 among under-30s and 58 to 29 among Latinos. Nationally, the Associated Press's large survey of about 80,000 voters found the economy was the top issue for roughly four in ten; about six in ten blamed Trump's policies for high prices; roughly four in ten said their House vote expressed opposition to Trump; and about seven in ten voters under 30 supported Democrats. This climate explains November's large margin more than June's choice. Yet Hamawy's general-election message captured it precisely. At an October forum he said: "Everywhere we go, whether it's in this district or around the state, around the country, we hear people talking about affordability."

Fifth: Gaza and identity, documented national effects and an unmeasured district effect. A Council on American-Islamic Relations and political-arm survey of 861 Muslim respondents nationwide, October 16-25, found 81 percent definitely intended to vote. Sixty-three percent identified the cost of living as the top domestic issue and 49 percent healthcare. Eighty-nine percent said a candidate's Gaza position was very or extremely important to their vote; 84 percent disapproved of Trump; and 72 percent planned to vote Democratic against 6 percent Republican. An Arab American Institute-Zogby poll of 500 likely Arab American voters, October 16-23, found 59 percent planned to vote Democratic for Congress against 26 percent Republican. This marked a return from their historic movement away from Democrats over Gaza in 2024, which the institute attributed to Trump's unpopularity and Democrats' movement away from unconditional support for Israel. Eighty-two percent reported economic hardship from rising prices, 65 percent had experienced discrimination, and 53 percent said rising anti-Arab and anti-Muslim hatred made them more likely to participate politically. But no source measures the size of the Arab and Muslim electorate in the 12th District or its 2026 turnout. November's margin is fully explained by the district's partisan alignment and the state wave. In the primary, however, Gaza was probably the decisive marginal factor, an inference from the campaign's structure and Hamawy's statements rather than a survey. It distinguished him from 11 rivals, activated his super PAC, supporters and donor base, and his own summary of victory was "there is no such thing as progressive except for Palestine." His campaign also deliberately organized young people: two Princeton students ran its campus branch and knocked on fellow students' doors. He claimed his campaign "brought in many people who had not voted in the past," a claim not supported by published turnout data.

Sixth: Islamophobic attacks did not decide either race. The sequence is documented: scrutiny before the primary, including the Washington Free Beacon on his 1995 testimony, Jewish Insider on Benevolence International, and a Wall Street Journal opinion article by the trial judge himself, Michael Mukasey; statements by Mapp and Gottheimer; then attacks by Johnson, Luna and Moskowitz after the primary. The assessment supported by the results, explicitly labeled as inference, is that his service record as an Army surgeon, September 11 first responder and lifesaving doctor to a senator neutralized association-based attacks among voters who decided the primary in a diverse district where about a third of residents were born abroad. His camp treated the attacks as further proof of his anti-establishment authenticity. But no survey directly measures district voters' reaction to those attacks, so a quantitative "backlash effect" cannot be asserted.

Reactions and significance

CNN included his victory among "historic firsts of the 2026 election," describing him as "a retired U.S. Army combat trauma surgeon and sharp critic of Israel, from his party's progressive wing, who supports Medicare for All and cancellation of medical and student debt." Progressive media described it as a victory for the left and Sanders' endorsed slate. Democracy Now! opened its coverage with his words: "I will fight for healthcare, not bombs, for abolishing ICE, and for unrigging the economy once and for all." His election night coincided with Abdul El-Sayed's Michigan victory to become the first Muslim elected to the U.S. Senate, which CAIR welcomed as "a historic victory achieved despite relentless Islamophobic attacks."

The victory's wider meaning is twofold. In representation, he is the first Muslim and first Arab American to represent the state in Congress, after CAIR Action estimated at least 151 other Muslim Americans were on ballots nationwide in 2026. In the balance of power, the New Jersey Globe recorded his defeat of the four counties' machine candidates as another sign of the state party establishment's declining influence. Political-finance publications read the district as a spending precedent: the first cycle in which a major pro-Palestinian committee mounted a campaign of this scale in a marquee primary, although partly because AIPAC chose not to contest it.

Principal sources

Hamawy's campaign website, priorities and biography, hamawyfornj.com; Associated Press 12th District results; New Jersey Globe coverage of the primary, general election, state wave, and Sanders and CAIR Action endorsements; MercerMe primary and general results, outside spending, and League of Women Voters forum; Daily Princetonian post-primary interview; Fairleigh Dickinson University poll, October 2026; CNN historic firsts; CAIR and CAIR Action Muslim voter survey release, October 2026; Arab American Institute-Zogby poll, October 2026; Jewish Currents on American Priorities' test; Jewish Telegraphic Agency reports; New Jersey Division of Elections note on not publishing election-night results; Bonnie Watson Coleman's November 10, 2025 retirement statement; and FEC reviews published by Eyes on AP and NJ Spotlight News.