Adam Hamawy wins New Jersey House seat, set to be state's first Muslim congressman

Adam Hamawy, an Egyptian-American reconstructive surgeon and US Army veteran, won election to New Jersey's 12th Congressional District on Tuesday and is set to become the first Muslim US congressman from the state.

Addressing supporters in Plainsboro, New Jersey, the 56-year-old said the victims of violence he had met over the years had given him hope. "To the men, women and children of Gaza and Palestine: Your smiles give me the hope and the courage to fight for a better world," he said.

He was one of eight Muslim Americans to win election races on Tuesday night, a night on which Democrats took control of both chambers of Congress, according to Al Jazeera.

From Baghdad to Congress

Hamawy was born in Egypt and moved to New Jersey as a baby, growing up in Old Bridge. He completed his undergraduate studies at Rutgers University and earned a medical degree from New Jersey Medical School.

He served eight years as a US Army officer, including a nine-month deployment to Baghdad in 2004 as a combat trauma surgeon, and retired with the rank of lieutenant colonel in 2011. Earlier, he worked as a first responder after the September 11 attacks.

In Baghdad he treated Tammy Duckworth, now a US senator from Illinois, after her helicopter was shot down by Iraqi fighters in November 2004. Duckworth, who lost both her legs, said Hamawy saved her life and stopped her from becoming a triple amputee by using a vascular procedure he had just learned in medical school. She was the first serving US congressperson to endorse him, in January.

Gaza missions and campaign platform

Hamawy entered politics after taking part in medical missions to Gaza in 2024 and 2025, experiences he said made a return to normal life impossible. He campaigned on a "healthcare not bombs" platform, pledging to challenge a system that he said funds genocide in Gaza while trapping Americans in medical debt.

The source describes the situation in Gaza as Israel's genocide, a characterisation Hamawy and the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) also use.

During a 2024 mission treating patients at Gaza's European Hospital, he said the destruction was unlike anything he had seen. Israel seized the Rafah border crossing during that period, temporarily trapping him and his colleagues. Hamawy refused to be evacuated until he was assured that non-American members of his team could also leave.

His stated priorities include healthcare for all, ending medical and student debt, and abolishing US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, an agency he has called "full of neo-Nazis". On foreign policy, he opposes the war on Iran, advocates ending US military aid to Israel, and supports the Palestinian right of return under international law.

Criticism and response

Hamawy declared his candidacy in January after Representative Bonnie Watson Coleman announced her retirement. Democratic challenger Adrian Mapp called him a "radical extremist", and critics pointed to his past association with Omar Abdel Rahman, the "Blind Sheikh", who was later convicted of terrorism charges, including in connection with the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.

Hamawy condemned Abdel Rahman's "violent rhetoric and actions" and said he testified at the trial out of a sense of "civic duty". He said the hate he faced was also directed at his family, coworkers and friends, and that his loyalty and patriotism had been questioned.

The ADC welcomed his victory, saying he would bring testimony of what he witnessed in Gaza to the Congress that funded US support for Israel. Selaedin Maksut, executive director of the New Jersey chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said "Islamophobic rhetoric employed by so many candidates miserably backfired this election season".

Source: Al Jazeera.