A groundbreaking political milestone unfolded in New Jersey’s 12th congressional district this week, as Egyptian-American Army veteran and trauma surgeon Dr. Adam Hamawy claimed a decisive midterm election victory, etching his name into state history as the first Muslim and Egyptian American ever elected to represent New Jersey in the U.S. Congress. His win forms a key part of a sweeping Democratic surge that has flipped control of the U.S. House of Representatives, with projections from MS Now showing the party on track to hold 250 seats when the new congressional session convenes in January, a sharp jump from the 215 seats Democrats held in the previous Republican-led chamber, where the GOP commanded a narrow 218-seat majority.
During his jubilant victory address delivered at a packed election watch party in Princeton, New Jersey, Hamawy opened his remarks with a direct, heartfelt message to the people of Gaza and Palestine: “To the men, women and children of Gaza and Palestine. Your smiles give me the courage and the hope to fight for a better world.” Flanked by long-serving New Jersey Congresswoman Bonnie Watson Coleman, who embraced him before introducing him to the cheering crowd, Hamawy struck a determined, no-nonsense tone rooted in his decades of medical and military service. “I’m a surgeon, and I can tell you that we are going to stop the bleeding. We are going to fight for every American that’s been left behind by the establishment that has been ruling Washington for so long,” he declared, also vowing to hold former President Donald Trump accountable for alleged past misconduct.
The Princeton venue brimmed with cross-community solidarity: attendees waved both American flags and traditional Palestinian keffiyehs, while members of Jewish Voice for Peace held prominent signs emblazoned with “Jews for Hamawy” to signal their endorsement. For many voters in attendance, including first-time campaign volunteer Yoshi, Hamawy’s unapologetic “health care not bombs” platform struck a deeply resonant chord. Yoshi, who previously organized with the Uncommitted New Jersey campaign to push for more equitable U.S. policy on Palestine, attributed the historic win to relentless grassroots mobilization rather than corporate campaign funding. “Organised people can really beat organised money,” he told Middle East Eye, adding that for him and a large segment of local progressive voters, unwavering support for Palestinian human rights served as a non-negotiable political litmus test. “Our work is not over; after Doctor Adam Hamawy wins this election, the work starts the next day. Because right now, Gaza is still under siege. Gaza is still being bombed. We don’t want our taxpayer money to be spent on war and genocide anymore.”
This display of unified support stood in stark, deliberate contrast to the relentless, vicious smear campaign Hamawy endured over the course of his run. The candidate openly spoke to reporters about the unprecedented wave of anti-Muslim bigotry targeted at him, his family, coworkers, and friends across New Jersey and nationwide. “I have never seen anti-Muslim hate as open and as loud, and as accepted as it is today, not just here in New Jersey, but across the country. It’s always been there, but now it’s open and allowed and vicious,” he noted, adding that opponents repeatedly questioned his loyalty and patriotism solely on the basis of his religious and cultural background. The most high-profile attack came via a Wall Street Journal opinion piece in May of this year, which attempted to link Hamawy’s core values to those of Omar Abdel Rahman, the blind Muslim cleric convicted in the 1990s terror plot to assassinate former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. Notably, Hamawy had served as a neutral witness for the prosecution during that landmark 1995 trial, testifying that while Abdel Rahman had expressed anti-American sentiments, he never explicitly outlined a concrete murder plot. Hamawy brushed off the baseless smears with characteristic grit, telling Middle East Eye ahead of his primary win: “I have done harder things than mount a political campaign. What’s the worst thing they’re going to do? Call me some names, attack me? I have seen much worse.”
Backed by a decades-long record of service that few congressional candidates can match, Hamawy’s policy platform centered unapologetically on working-class priorities: universal Medicare for All, drastically expanded affordable housing, fully funded public education, strengthened immigrant protections, civil liberties safeguards, and a full overhaul of U.S. foreign policy to prioritize human rights over endless, costly foreign wars. Raised in New Jersey by working-class Egyptian immigrant parents, Hamawy joined the New Jersey Army National Guard to fund his college education, launching his first humanitarian medical deployment as a medical student in war-ravaged Bosnia. In the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks on New York City, he volunteered to treat survivors at Ground Zero, and three years later deployed as a U.S. Army combat trauma surgeon, where he famously saved the life of then-wounded Illinois Senator Tammy Duckworth. Over 30 years of volunteer medical service, he has worked on the front lines of disaster and conflict zones across Sudan, Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Turkey, and Jordan, including deploying to Gaza at the peak of the 2024-2025 Israeli military campaign to provide emergency care as the territory’s formal healthcare system neared total collapse.
For supporters like Nancy Sedlak, a member of the New Jersey Education Association, Hamawy’s upset victory represented a long-awaited reprieve from the vitriol of modern U.S. political campaigning. “I can finally breathe a little bit and relax a little bit. It’s been a horrific ten years, and it’s hope that we can reclaim our democracy,” she said, noting that she cast her ballot for Hamawy specifically for his commitments to rebuild the struggling U.S. middle class and expand funding for public education. When he is sworn into office this coming January, Hamawy will bring his surgeon’s ethos of triage and care directly to the halls of Congress, carrying the demands of his diverse, progressive New Jersey district to Washington’s highest legislative body.