JUNE 3, 2026
Adam Hamawy wins Democratic primary for New Jersey's 12th Congressional District
Adam Hamawy, a retired Army combat surgeon, won the Democratic primary for New Jersey's 12th Congressional District, a solidly Democratic seat being vacated by retiring Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman. He won a field of roughly a dozen candidates and will face Republican Gregg Mele in the November general election. His campaign received more than $1.5 million in support from American Priorities, a pro-Palestinian super PAC, and endorsements from Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
Hamawy, who is Muslim and immigrated to the United States from Egypt as a child, positioned himself as a progressive outsider in the race. He supports Medicare for All, cancellation of medical and student loan debt, and has been publicly critical of Israel's military campaign in Gaza, where he conducted two medical missions in 2024 and 2025. Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., endorsed him on the first day of his campaign, crediting him with saving her life after her helicopter was shot down in Iraq in 2004; Hamawy has said Duckworth helped secure his evacuation after Israel closed the Rafah border crossing during his 2024 medical mission.
Hamawy's primary campaign was shadowed by scrutiny over his past association with Omar Abdel Rahman, an Egyptian-born cleric convicted of seditious conspiracy in connection with the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. Hamawy was called as a defense witness at Abdel Rahman's 1996 trial. His campaign described his testimony as fulfilling "his civic and legal duty to testify truthfully under oath," and said he had no contact with Abdel Rahman after the cleric's arrest. The campaign characterized the criticism as "guilt-by-association attacks on Muslim and Arab candidates." He was never criminally charged.
Fox News reported that Hamawy also briefly volunteered in 1994 for what it described as a now-shuttered al Qaeda-linked front group in Eastern Europe, citing Jewish Insider. His campaign did not address that specific allegation in materials reviewed for this story. Fox News contributor Andrew McCarthy, who served as chief prosecutor in the Abdel Rahman trial, said Hamawy's defense testimony "did more to bolster the prosecution's proof of a jihadist terrorism conspiracy against the United States than to help the accused."