A Gaza doctor seeks to carry on a New Jersey progressive’s legacy
In New Jersey’s 12th Congressional district, Dr. Adam Hamawy is bringing a national profile and the support of a sitting senator to the race, which could make the difference in a crowded Democratic primary. New Jersey’s 12th district, currently represented by Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman, D-N.J., who is retiring after this current term, is among the safest of safe blue districts, which stretches across a patch of the state southwest of Newark. Watson Coleman carried the district by about 25 points in 2024.
This means that whoever wins the Democratic nomination is more than likely to carry the November election, a dynamic that has already drawn more than a dozen candidates into the primary. While Hamawy isn’t the only progressive in the race, he has gained an early edge with fundraising, volunteers and the support of Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., whose life he actually saved after her helicopter was shot down in Iraq in 2004.
In terms of money, Hamawy raised some $350,000 in just the first few weeks of his campaign, which launched in mid-January. This puts him in the upper tier of Democratic fundraisers in the district. East Brunswick Mayor Brad Cohen, who launched his campaign in November, raised some $279,000 and Jay Vaingankar raised just more than $154,000. Sue Altman, a former staffer for Sen. Andy Kim, D-N.J., announced that she’d raised more than $250,000 for her bid, which she launched earlier this week.
In an interview with Salon, Hamawy said that his campaign had been “overwhelmed” by the influx of volunteers since he launched his campaign, and is working on building the campaign infrastructure to accommodate the deluge of requests. So far, the campaign says, they’ve received around 200 requests to volunteer for a primary election on June 2.
“I would say he has support of voters of all ages who are disappointed with the party establishment’s approach, especially on Gaza and understanding that that’s most likely why we lost the 2024 election.”
Hamawy’s support, however, goes beyond just fundraising. Sadaf Jaffer, who represented an overlapping state legislative district and served as the mayor of Montgomery Township, told Salon that Hamawy maintains support from the significant Muslim population and Arab community in the district, as well as younger voters in the district, which includes the town of Princeton and Princeton University.
“Being someone who’s from this district, who grew up in this district, certainly he has a lot of support among the Muslim community, the Arab community and younger voters who are looking for this moral consistency,” Jaffer said. “But I would say he has support of voters of all ages who are disappointed with the party establishment’s approach, especially on Gaza and understanding that that’s most likely why we lost the 2024 election.”
Part of the jumpstart Hamawy got in the race is no doubt attributable to his outspoken criticism of U.S. foreign policy, especially in the context of American support for Israel’s campaign in Gaza, which countless genocide scholars and human rights groups have called a genocide. Hamawy volunteered as a doctor in Gaza in 2024 and has appeared on numerous internet, TV and audio broadcasts discussing his experience and what he saw there. Hamawy was also the guest of Watson Coleman at President Donald Trump’s joint address to Congress last year. An aide to Watson Coleman told Salon that the representative has not made an endorsement in this race or indicated any intention to support a specific candidate at this stage of the race.
Aside from support of voters disaffected with American foreign policy, Hamawy’s advocacy has also won him the support of A New Policy, an organization founded by former Biden Administration officials who resigned over the government’s policy on Gaza, dedicated to supporting candidates that they believe will support the “sustainable coexistence in Palestine and Israel on the basis of liberty, equality and human rights.”
Tariq Habash, a co-founder of A New Policy, told Salon in an interview that they are supporting Hamawy because of his work “saving countless lives, including many children” in Gaza.
Habash cited polling showing that Gaza and support for Israel were a top issue for voters who supported former President Joe Biden in 2020 but did not support Vice President Kamala Harris in 2024. An Institute for Middle East Understanding Policy Project survey found that among these voters, 29% cited “ending Israel’s violence in Gaza” as the most important factor in making their decision in 2024. This was followed by the economy at 24% and Medicare and Social Security at 12%.
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“It wasn’t the economy, it wasn’t health care, it wasn’t rising costs. Gaza was number one on their list, and those other ones, they weren’t far off, but they weren’t first. And I think that is an important story to tell,” Habash said. “I think it’s an important point that even now, after years of very similar conversations, there’s still not a consensus within the Democratic Party, and I think it is very, very dangerous for Democrats.”
Habash added that he hoped candidates like Hamawy could win and force a reckoning within the Democratic Party over the issue of American support for Israel, but also about the country’s foreign policy more broadly, saying “no one person can do this alone.”
For Hamawy’s part, he said he’s running with the hopes of carrying on the work that Watson Coleman has been doing in Congress up to this point.
“She’s been not afraid to speak up against what she sees as wrong. She’s been ethical. She’s working for the people in her district, and even though it might not be the most popular thing, she’s able to step up and say, ‘Listen, what’s happening here at home is unacceptable,’” Hamawy told Salon.
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