Adam Hamawy, a plastic surgeon, army veteran and conflict-zone medical worker, has won a crowded Democratic primary for an open seat in the United States House of Representatives. 

The Egyptian-born doctor’s victory puts him on track to represent New Jersey’s 12th Congressional District, a Democratic stronghold. He will face off with his Republican opponent on November 3 in the midterm elections. 

While the New Jersey primary continues a streak of progressive wins in solidly Democratic districts, Hamawy stands out from many of his peers. If elected in November, he will become the only member of Congress with firsthand experience of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza. 

Hamawy gained national attention as part of a volunteer team of American doctors in Gaza that was unable to leave after Israel seized and closed the Rafah border crossing during the Gaza War. Army National Guard veteran and US Senator Tammy Duckworth, who credits Hamawy with saving her life when they were both serving in the Iraq War, personally intervened to help them leave. Hamawy was one of three doctors who chose to stay behind until the non-Americans on the team could depart.

Speaking to Al Jazeera in April, Hamawy recounted his experience travelling to Washington, DC, following his medical mission to the Palestinian enclave in 2024. 

“[I was] talking to lawmakers and our representatives as a witness to say: This is happening there,” Hamawy recounted. “This is real. This isn’t fake news. This isn’t just on social media. I’ve experienced it, and this is what I saw in my own eyes.” 

He received a mixed response. A handful of lawmakers spoke out against the war, citing his testimony. Others expressed private condemnation but did nothing publicly, and some closed their doors to any meeting with Hamawy. 

“This is what prompted me to run,” he said. “We need more [elected officials] that are brave, more that will actually act upon what we know is wrong.”

As a representative, Hamawy hopes he can help steer the House to confront Israel’s genocidal war and the US role in it. “I felt I had to go to Washington to fix this myself.” 

In blocking outside access, Hamawy says Israel has attempted to “build a narrative … that these are bad people that we need to bomb out of existence”. 

Hamawy is no stranger to conflict zones: He has participated in medical missions to Bosnia, Sudan, Haiti, Lebanon and Syria. 

But he described his experience in Gaza as particularly revelatory, given the US backing for Israel’s war. He remembers seeing patient after patient permanently maimed by Israeli attacks. 

“By going there and actually living it, by taking care of a child who’s come and had his arm blown off and lost his entire family, [you’re not] able to turn it off, because you have to operate on them and see them the next day,” he said. “And then you see someone else and do this consistently.” 

He added that the stress of being in the war zone was overwhelming as well. 

The experience involves “not being able to sleep, because you’re being bombed, like hour after hour, and have drones over your head 24/7. And you know that, at any point of time, something’s gonna happen,” he said. “You have really no control of your life at all.” 

Hamawy also pointed out that, back in New Jersey, residents are struggling to pay for basic services like healthcare, while Washington continues to pay for war. 

Hamawy’s political ascension has been buoyed by several high-profile endorsements, including from Senator Tammy Duckworth, who

credits the former US Army combat surgeon with saving her life when her Black Hawk helicopter was shot down in Iraq in 2004. 

Duckworth had previously advocated for Hamawy when his medical mission was temporarily blocked by Israel from exiting Gaza in 2024. 

He also gained a key endorsement in May from Senator Bernie Sanders, a progressive stalwart. His campaign benefitted, too, from a surge in spending by progressive groups, including millions in ad buys from American Priorities, a pro-Palestinian super PAC. 

The same night as Adam Hamawy’s primary victory, progressive activist and Democratic Socialist Representative Analilia Mejia, defeated her opponents in the Democratic primary to run for re-election in November. Mejia was also very outspoken about her support for Palestinian victims of genocide in Gaza.

A few months earlier Mejia soundly defeated her Republican opponent in a special election to represent the 11th Congressional District from New Jersey, delivering a victory for Democrats in the runup to this fall’s midterm elections. 

When Democrat Mikie Sherrill became New Jersey’s first Democratic woman to be elected Governor she vacated her congressional seat representing a politically competitive, suburban district in the northern part of the state. 

Progressive and Socialist Democrats were united in support of Analilia Mejia who was endorsed by Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Sanders came to New Jersey for a rally where he appeared with Mejia for a public show of support. 

The Democratic primary in New Jersey was a big win for progressive activists and Democratic Socialism. It was also a huge blow to support

among New Jersey voters for Zionist Expansionism and Israel’s war of genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. 

In his victory speech on Tuesday night, Hamawy said his win signaled a new “era” in US politics. 

“Let me be absolutely clear with you all and everyone watching today: There was once a time when this may have worked, where racist and anti-Muslim attacks could swing an election,” he said. 

“That era of American politics is over.”

This article was originally published by Ken Bank Substack; please consider supporting the original publication, and read the original version at the link above.