From Gaza's Hospitals to Capitol Hill: Dr. Adam Hamawy's Journey to Congress Fueled by 'Healthcare, Not Bombs'

Dr. Adam Hamawy, a Democratic congressional candidate, has dedicated decades to confronting death, devastation, and hate. His experiences as a first responder after the September 11 attacks, a military surgeon in Iraq, and most recently, during medical missions to Gaza, have profoundly shaped his path. On Tuesday, he celebrated a victory in Plainsboro, New Jersey, drawing inspiration from the resilience of those he encountered who have suffered from violence.

“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 declared. The Egyptian-American surgeon is poised to become New Jersey’s first Muslim US congressman, marking a significant milestone. This election win represents the culmination of a unique journey into politics for the 56-year-old US Army veteran and reconstructive surgeon, who was among eight Muslim Americans elected to office on Tuesday, contributing to the Democratic Party's strong control over both chambers of Congress.

Hamawy’s decision to enter politics was solidified by his participation in medical missions to Gaza in 2024 and 2025. These experiences, he stated, made returning to a semblance of normal life impossible. His campaign for New Jersey’s 12th Congressional District was centered on the powerful slogan “healthcare not bombs,” advocating for a fundamental shift away from a system he argues “funds genocide [in Gaza] while trapping us all here in medical debt.”

However, Hamawy’s campaign for the House of Representatives was met with significant opposition, including attacks he characterized as “anti-Muslim,” and scrutiny regarding his past association with a sheikh later convicted of seditious conspiracy. “I have never seen anti-Muslim hate as open and as loud and as accepted as it is today,” Hamawy commented, reflecting on his eight years as a US Army officer, which included a deployment to Iraq as a combat surgeon. He extended a message of belonging to Muslim children facing discrimination: “Let me say this to anyone who still believes that Muslims are strangers here. To every Muslim child who’s been told that you don’t belong: You belong.”

The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) lauded Hamawy’s victory and that of other “principled candidates.” The ADC noted, “Hamawy witnessed the horrors of Israel’s genocide in Gaza firsthand. Now, he will take his place in the very Congress that funded and enabled those atrocities, bringing the testimony of what he witnessed directly to the lawmakers responsible for sustaining US support for Israel’s genocide.”

Born in Egypt, Hamawy’s family relocated to New Jersey when he was an infant. Raised in Old Bridge, New Jersey, he pursued his education at Rutgers University and earned his medical degree from New Jersey Medical School. He later joined the New Jersey National Guard and served as a combat trauma surgeon in the US Army, including a nine-month deployment to Baghdad, Iraq, in 2004. During this deployment, Hamawy treated then-US Army helicopter pilot Tammy Duckworth, who is now an Illinois Senator. Duckworth credits Hamawy with saving her life and a limb after her helicopter was shot down by Iraqi fighters in November 2004. “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,” Duckworth stated, having lost both her legs.

Senator Duckworth was the first serving US congressperson to endorse Hamawy in January, recognizing his leadership and his courage to “speak truth to power” and his “willingness to call out injustices at home and abroad.” Hamawy retired from the army with the rank of lieutenant colonel in 2011. In the years leading up to and following his retirement, he utilized his medical expertise in numerous international humanitarian missions, providing care to victims of war and disaster in locations such as Haiti, Jordan, Lebanon, and Gaza.

During his initial mission to Gaza in 2024, Hamawy described the level of destruction as unprecedented. “This is not like a war. This is just like complete, utter destruction,” he stated in an interview from Gaza, characterizing the situation as “genocide.” He further expressed his distress, saying, “When the hospital shakes and I see the bodies come in, I’m paying for it with my tax dollars. I don’t want my tax dollars doing that.” While providing medical care at Gaza’s European Hospital in 2024, Israel’s seizure of the Rafah border crossing temporarily stranded Hamawy and his team. Hamawy insisted on remaining until assurances were made for the safe departure of non-American team members.

Hamawy announced his candidacy for Congress in January, following the retirement of Representative Bonnie Watson Coleman. His campaign quickly faced strong opposition, with Democratic challenger Adrian Mapp labeling him a “radical extremist.” Critics, including Mapp, highlighted Hamawy’s past association with Omar Abdel Rahman, known as the “Blind Sheikh,” who was convicted of terrorism-related charges, including those connected to the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. Hamawy, in his early twenties at the time, attended a conference with Abdel Rahman and later testified as a defense witness at his trial. Hamawy has since condemned Abdel Rahman’s “violent rhetoric and actions,” asserting his testimony was an act of “civic duty.” Despite this, several New Jersey politicians questioned Hamawy’s connection to Abdel Rahman, who passed away in 2017. “As a Muslim, they’re always going to find something to attack,” Hamawy told local media, with his campaign denouncing the scrutiny as “gross and bigoted.” Following his election victory, Hamawy noted that the animosity extended to his family, colleagues, and friends, and that his “loyalty” and “patriotism” had been questioned. Selaedin Maksut, executive director of the New Jersey chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, observed, “Islamophobic rhetoric employed by so many candidates miserably backfired this election season.” Maksut added, “New Jersey is a better place because American Muslims are standing up, speaking out, and fighting for a more just future for all.”

Hamawy’s policy agenda includes universal healthcare, the elimination of medical and student debt, and the abolition of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), which he has described as an agency “full of neo-Nazis.” He emphasized that his advocacy for universal healthcare is deeply personal, stemming from his experience as a physician who “sees firsthand how insurance companies and the rest of our absurd system fail patients and providers alike.” In foreign policy, Hamawy opposes the war on Iran, deeming it “illegal and immoral,” and supports ending US military aid to Israel. He is committed to fighting for “justice and equal rights for Palestinians, including support for the Palestinian right of return under international law.” The surgeon-turned-congressman views his policy goals as interconnected, stating, “They are solutions to a crisis that was born out of a broken and rigged political and economical system.” He elaborated, “A system that floods money overseas to bomb children’s schools while at the same time [saying] that childcare here in America [is a] pie-in-the-sky idea.”