Adam Hamawy

Adam Hamawy is the Democratic nominee for New Jersey's open 12th Congressional District. A plastic and reconstructive surgeon and U.S. Army veteran who reached the rank of lieutenant colonel, he served as a combat trauma surgeon in Iraq and has volunteered as a physician in conflict and disaster zones, including Gaza in 2024 and 2025. He won a 13-candidate Democratic primary on June 2, 2026, and has not previously held elected office. He is running on Medicare for All, abolishing ICE, and economic policies aimed at working families.[1][2][3]

Adam Hamawy is the son of Egyptian immigrants, according to the New Jersey Globe. His campaign website says his family came to New Jersey when he was seven months old and that he grew up in Plainfield and Old Bridge and attended public schools.[5][4] He enlisted in the New Jersey Army National Guard in 1989 and served until 1991, and graduated from Rutgers University, New Brunswick, in 1991 with a biology major, using an ROTC scholarship. He later graduated from New Jersey Medical School (now part of Rutgers University-Newark) in 1996, and Ballotpedia also lists a graduate degree from Rutgers University at Camden.[4][1] According to his campaign website, he made his first volunteer humanitarian medical mission in 1994 as a medical student, working with the United Nations to deliver medical supplies to hospitals in Bosnia.[4]

On September 11, 2001, while a surgical resident in New York, Hamawy treated victims and first responders at a field hospital at Ground Zero.[4][1] He served in the U.S. Army from 2003 to 2011, rising to lieutenant colonel, including nine months as a combat trauma surgeon in Baghdad during the Iraq War. WHYY reports he is credited with helping save the life of Sen. Tammy Duckworth in Iraq.[1][3][5] After his service, he worked in New Jersey emergency rooms and built his own medical practice in Princeton; WHYY describes him as a plastic and reconstructive surgeon with an office in Princeton.[4][2]

Hamawy has volunteered as a physician in war and disaster zones for about 30 years, including Haiti, Sudan, Syria, Lebanon and Turkey. During 2024 and 2025 medical missions to Gaza he was among a group that was unable to leave when the Rafah Crossing was seized.[4][1] He was Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman's guest at the 2025 State of the Union address, and he won the June 2, 2026 Democratic primary to succeed the retiring Watson Coleman.[4][3] Per WHYY, he lives in South Brunswick with his wife and has four children.[2]

Researched from the cited sources on 2026-10-21.