Adam Hamawy, a surgeon and U.S. Army veteran who called Israel’s actions in Gaza a “genocide” and has connections with “Blind Sheikh” Omar Abdel Rahman, won the Democratic nomination to succeed retiring Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman in New Jersey’s 12th Congressional District.
Hamawy’s likely election in November in the heavily Democratic district means that New Jersey, which has the fourth highest number of Jews among the 50 states, will send two strident opponents of Israel to the U.S. House next January.
If elected, Hamawy would be New Jersey’s first Muslim to serve in Congress.
“We were told that an outsider couldn’t win. That we couldn’t compete. Well, I think we competed,” Hamawy told supporters in Princeton, N.J., according to NJ.com. “In every corner of this district, we built a movement of people who were fed up.”
In a field of 12 active candidates—one of them being East Brunswick Mayor Brad Cohen, who described himself as “a proud Jew” to JNS last month—Hamawy, an Egyptian American, received less than 30% of the vote.
That’s about the same percentage community activist Analilia Mejia won in the February Democratic primary for a special election in the 11th District before she was elected to Congress in June.
She won her initial election after the American Israel Public Affairs Committee spent more than $2.3 million in a successful attempt to deny the Democratic nomination to former congressman Tom Malinowski, who had a pro-Israel voting record and an AIPAC endorsement when he previously served in the House.
Stephanie Taylor, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, cited both Hamawy and Mejia, as well as last month’s primary victory in Philadelphia of another critic of Israel running for Congress, state representative Chris Rabb, as an indication that “bold, inspiring economic populism is how Democrats win.”
“Voters want a Democratic Party that fights for them, not for the billionaires and corporate donors who rig our politics,” Taylor stated.
Hamawy, who served in Iraq and is credited with saving the life of Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), also volunteered at a Gaza hospital during the war with Hamas and insisted that Israel’s response to Oct. 7 was “genocide.”
His ties to Rahman, the “blind sheikh,” also drew attention. Rahman was convicted of terrorism following the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. He died in prison while serving a life sentence.
Hamawy was endorsed by several prominent critics of Israel, including Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.).
And he was supported by far-left streamer Hasan Piker, who held a pre-election rally for him. Piker has called the Israel Defense Forces a “Nazi army” and Orthodox Jews “inbred.”
Also in New Jersey, health care executive Rebecca Bennett won the Democratic nomination to take on Rep. Tom Kean Jr. (R-N.J.) in the state’s most competitive congressional race.
Kean hasn’t voted in the U.S. House since early March due to an unspecified medical issue.
Bennett’s background as a former Navy helicopter pilot and her moderate politics are similar to those of New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill, who represented the state in Congress before being elected as the state’s chief executive.
And Justin Murphy, a former Tabernacle town committee member, won the Republican nomination to challenge Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), a strong supporter of Israel.
