Adam Hamawy, an Egyptian-American surgeon who volunteered in Gaza's hospitals during the war, won New Jersey's 12th Congressional District on Tuesday, defeating Republican Gregg Mele to become the first Muslim to represent the state in Congress. With about 93% of the expected vote counted, NBC News showed Hamawy with 70.2% of the vote to Mele's 28.3%. He will succeed Democratic Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman, who is retiring.
Addressing supporters on election night, Hamawy spoke bluntly about the climate he said Muslim Americans face. "I have served this country and I have worn its uniform. I have served it in war and I have served it in peace," he said. "And I have never seen anti-Muslim hate as open and as loud and as accepted as it is today." He promised to "fight for every American that's been left behind by the establishment that has been ruling Washington for so long," and closed with "Allahu Akbar" and "may God bless the United States of America."
120 surgeries in Khan Younis
Born in Egypt and raised in Old Bridge Township after his family moved to New Jersey when he was a baby, Hamawy is a plastic and reconstructive surgeon in Princeton. In May 2024, he joined a volunteer medical mission organized by the Palestinian American Medical Association and the World Health Organization at the European Gaza Hospital in Khan Younis, where he performed 120 surgeries, more than half of them on children. When Israel closed the Rafah crossing shortly after the team arrived, the doctors were stranded for seven extra days, and Hamawy refused to leave until colleagues from Jordan, Egypt and Australia could get out too. He later told NPR that about 80% of the patients arriving at the hospital died, largely because of a lack of medication, staff and resources.
Over three decades, he has volunteered as a doctor in disaster and war zones from Sudan and Syria to Lebanon, Turkey and Jordan. He treated the wounded at ground zero after the Sept. 11 attacks while he was a surgical resident, and served eight years in the New Jersey National Guard, including nine months at the 31st Combat Support Hospital in Baghdad. One of his patients there was now-Sen. Tammy Duckworth, who credits him with saving her life after her Black Hawk helicopter was shot down in Iraq in 2004.
"Healthcare, Not Bombs"
Running under the slogan "Healthcare, Not Bombs," Hamawy called for ending U.S. military aid to Israel and campaigned on abolishing ICE, tackling wealth inequality and shifting money from the military to health care. He won a 13-candidate Democratic primary in June with endorsements from Duckworth, Sen. Bernie Sanders, Rep. Ro Khanna and Rep. Ilhan Omar, while American Priorities, a pro-Palestinian super PAC, spent heavily on his behalf.
Hamawy was one of four Muslim Democrats to win House races on Tuesday, alongside Omar, Rashida Tlaib and André Carson, who all kept their seats.
Photos: Al Jazeera, social media
