The projected Tuesday night that Adam Hamawy had won New Jersey’s 12th District, giving the surgeon and Army veteran an apparent path to Congress just 26 minutes after polls closed. By 8:26 p.m., with about 27 percent of the expected vote counted, Hamawy led with 74.8 percent of the vote and 50,915 votes.
That early call was enough to make the race the night’s clearest result for voters in Mercer, Middlesex, Somerset and Union counties. Hamawy, 56, a South Brunswick surgeon who was raised in New Jersey, will replace Bonnie Watson Coleman, who is retiring after six terms.
Hamawy’s victory also came over Gregg Mele, who had 16,250 votes and about 23.9 percent, as well as Winston Jordan and Andres Jinete. The district has long leaned heavily Democratic, with registered Democrats outnumbering registered Republicans by more than 2-to-1, but the primary still drew real competition and left little room for anyone to coast.
Hamawy ran as a plastic and reconstructive surgeon with an office in Princeton and as an Army combat surgeon who volunteered in war and disaster zones, including two trips to Gaza in recent years. He was also a first responder on 9/11 and has served with medical teams in Iraq and Haiti, a resume that gave him a distinctive profile in a district where voters were weighing national politics against local familiarity.
He campaigned on expanding health care, abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement and creating more economic opportunity for working families, and said the United States should not send weapons to countries that violate international human rights law. He also opposed the war with Iran. Those positions helped him win the crowded Democratic primary on June 2, with backing from Bernie Sanders, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and the Congressional Progressive Caucus PAC, and they now place him in a district that is blue enough to favor Democrats but still demanding enough to sort out which Democrat gets through.
The remaining vote count could narrow Hamawy’s margin, but not the outcome projected on Tuesday night. The question left open is not who won the seat, but how large the final spread will be once the vote is finished and the result is certified.
