Adam Hamawy has won a seat in the US House of Representatives, becoming set to be New Jersey’s first Muslim congressman after a campaign shaped by his medical missions to Gaza and his pledge to put “healthcare not bombs” at the centre of politics.
The Egyptian-American reconstructive surgeon celebrated the victory in Plainsboro, New Jersey, on Tuesday, telling supporters that the people he had treated amid violence had given him hope and courage.
“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,” Hamawy said.
The 56-year-old is one of eight Muslim Americans to win election races, as Democrats took control of both chambers of Congress. His victory followed a hard-fought campaign in New Jersey’s 12th Congressional District.
Hamawy entered politics after taking part in medical missions to Gaza in 2024 and 2025. He said the experience made it impossible for him to return to a normal life.
During his first mission, he described the destruction in Gaza as unlike anything he had previously witnessed. “This is not like a war. This is just like complete, utter destruction,” he said, adding that he could define what was happening only “as a genocide”.
While working at Gaza’s European Hospital in 2024, Hamawy and his colleagues were temporarily trapped in the enclave after Israel seized the Rafah border crossing. He refused evacuation until he had assurances that non-American members of his team would also be allowed to leave.
From combat surgeon to congressman
Born in Egypt and raised in Old Bridge, New Jersey, Hamawy studied at Rutgers University before earning his medical degree from New Jersey Medical School.
He joined the New Jersey National Guard and served for eight years as a US Army officer, including a nine-month deployment to Baghdad in 2004 as a combat trauma surgeon.
During that deployment, he treated Tammy Duckworth, now an Illinois senator, after the helicopter she was piloting was shot down by Iraqi fighters. Duckworth lost both her legs but has said Hamawy’s treatment prevented her from becoming a triple amputee.
“He is the doctor who not only saved my life, but was able to prevent me from becoming a triple amputee by employing a vascular procedure that he’d just learned in medical school,” she said.
Duckworth, who was the first serving member of Congress to endorse Hamawy, described him as a leader with the courage to “speak truth to power” and challenge injustices in the US and abroad.
Hamawy retired from the Army as a lieutenant colonel in 2011. He later joined humanitarian missions treating victims of war and disaster in Haiti, Jordan, Lebanon and Gaza.
Campaign attacks and policy pledges
Hamawy’s campaign was marked by attacks he described as anti-Muslim. Critics, including Democratic challenger Adrian Mapp, called him a “radical extremist” and questioned his past association with Omar Abdel Rahman, known as the “Blind Sheikh”.
Hamawy travelled to a conference with Abdel Rahman when he was in his early 20s and later appeared as a defence witness at his trial. Abdel Rahman was subsequently convicted of several terrorism-related charges, including in connection with the 1993 World Trade Centre bombing.
Hamawy has condemned Abdel Rahman’s “violent rhetoric and actions” and said he gave evidence out of a sense of “civic duty”. His campaign called the continuing scrutiny “gross and bigoted”.
“I have never seen anti-Muslim hate as open and as loud and as accepted as it is today,” Hamawy said.
After his victory, he said the attacks had also been directed at his family, colleagues and friends, with his loyalty and patriotism questioned.
His platform included universal healthcare, an end to medical and student debt, and the abolition of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement. He also opposed military aid to Israel and called for equal rights for Palestinians, including support for the Palestinian right of return under international law.
The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee said Hamawy would bring his firsthand testimony from Gaza to the Congress that had funded and enabled US support for Israel. The New Jersey chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations said Islamophobic rhetoric had “miserably backfired” during the election.
Addressing Muslim Americans after his win, Hamawy said: “To every Muslim child who’s been told that you don’t belong: You belong.”
