Adam Hamawy's political career began with closed doors. After returning from Gaza in 2024, the trauma surgeon traveled to Washington determined to tell lawmakers what he witnessed. Most would not listen. Those who did included Bonnie Watson Coleman, his representative from New Jersey's 12th congressional district. When she announced her retirement last November after six terms, Hamawy decided waiting for politicians' attention was no longer viable. He launched a campaign to join them.
Six months later, the political newcomer has become the race's frontrunner by most measures. Bernie Sanders, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar and Tammy Duckworth have all endorsed him. A Super Pac focused on Palestinian issues has pledged $2 million in television advertising. He has raised more than $1 million, outpacing every other candidate in the field, largely through small donations from Muslim and Arab American communities.
Hamawy, a practicing trauma plastic surgeon, would become New Jersey's first Muslim representative in Congress if he wins Tuesday's Democratic primary. The race is wide open following the collapse of New Jersey's county-line ballot system, which previously allowed party leaders to heavily influence primaries. Twelve candidates are competing for a seat in a safely Democratic district that stretches from Princeton's affluent neighborhoods to the working-class areas of Trenton and Plainfield.
His political positions flow directly from his medical career. Hamawy witnessed the 1990s Bosnian war as a volunteer surgeon and served as an army combat surgeon in Iraq, where he was part of the team that saved Tammy Duckworth's life after her Black Hawk helicopter was struck by a rocket-propelled grenade. His three-week stay in Gaza last year, operating at a hospital while the city was bombed around him, crystallized his worldview. "I could only define it as a genocide, because I saw the bodies of the people that came in," he reflected while canvassing neighborhoods door-to-door. "And it wasn't an accident. You can't have an accident, every single day for three years."
That experience informs his platform. He calls for Medicare for All, abolishing ICE, dismantling the Department of Homeland Security, canceling medical and student debt, and halting US military aid to Israel. He has been explicit that he cannot support Democratic leaders Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer. "We're told we don't have enough money for Medicare for All," he said while campaigning. "But at the same time we just started another war. We have plenty of money for the bombs."
Hamawy was born in Egypt and moved to New Jersey as an infant. He grew up in Plainfield and Old Bridge, attended Rutgers University, and built his surgical practice in Princeton, where he remains on call during his campaign. He is also a painter, and recently created a work titled "Sanctuary Under Occupation" depicting the al-Aqsa mosque after visiting Jerusalem in 2024.
At a May forum hosted by Princeton University's Young Democratic Socialists of America, Hamawy laid out his platform with a simple declaration. "Human rights is my red line," he told the room. "I would vote against all bills that attack anyone's rights." The group's co-chair Christopher Quire said he was surprised by how powerfully Hamawy resonated with the audience. "The students were really focused on what he's saying."
His positions place him well to the left of the Democratic establishment. While building strong support among younger progressives and antiwar voters, some rivals have taken more cautious stances on issues like ICE, reflecting broader party tensions over how far left Democrats can move on immigration without alienating moderates.
Voters across the district show varied priorities. Simran Riar, a 30-year-old city planner who came to the US through asylum, had a Hamawy poster in his window. Duckworth's endorsement made him "the most viable" candidate, Riar said, but what sealed his support was Hamawy's "heartfelt" opposition to war. Not far away, Trudy Dockery remained undecided, reading through candidate profiles while weighing concerns about crime, taxes and affordability. Craig Burnett, a creative director in Trenton, noted that Hamawy was the only candidate from the race who visited his neighborhood. Organizer Elijah Dixon, who briefly ran before endorsing Hamawy, said housing, utilities and healthcare dominate conversations among many voters. "The future is still slipping away right in front of them," he said.
Gaza emerges in nearly every community conversation. "You can't go to a town hall or community meeting without someone mentioning that," Dixon added.
Conservative media outlets have resurfaced two episodes from Hamawy's past. In 1995, as a medical student, he testified as a defense witness in the trial of Omar Abdel-Rahman, the so-called "blind sheikh" later convicted of seditious conspiracy tied to the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. Hamawy testified about statements he heard Abdel-Rahman make at religious gatherings. He noted that Abdel-Rahman was one of the few widely known Muslim religious figures in New Jersey at the time and that he was never accused of wrongdoing. Conservative outlets have also highlighted his 1994 volunteer work in Bosnia with a charity later shut down for providing logistical support to al-Qaida, though a US envoy under Bill Clinton had previously visited the organization and praised its humanitarian relief work. "As a Muslim, they're always going to find something to attack," Hamawy told reporters. "I'm used to this all my life."
Asked to define his politics, Hamawy paused only briefly. "My politics is based on my work," he said. From Gaza to the trauma ward to Capitol Hill, his life has convinced him that those making decisions about wars, healthcare and debt answer to interests far removed from the patients and families he has encountered.
Author James Rodriguez: "A trauma surgeon with major progressive endorsements and grassroots money beating establishment-backed candidates in a top-tier primary is exactly the kind of story that reshapes what's possible in American politics."
Comments