Overview
- Hamawy won the crowded Democratic primary for New Jersey’s 12th District, a result that makes him the heavy favorite to take the seat in November after party voters picked him on Tuesday.
- Reporting and court records show Hamawy testified as a defense witness for Omar Abdel‑Rahman in the mid‑1990s and described past meetings and travel with the cleric during that period.
- He volunteered in Bosnia in 1994 with the Benevolence International Foundation, an organization the U.S. Treasury later designated as linked to al‑Qaida, but Hamawy was never charged with a crime over those activities.
- Progressive endorsements and outside pro‑Palestinian spending helped boost his campaign, with supporters pointing to his record as a U.S. Army combat surgeon and humanitarian volunteer as central to his candidacy.
- Reactions are sharply divided: critics, including some Republicans and at least one Democrat, have called for further scrutiny or investigation, while allies describe the attacks as unfair guilt‑by‑association efforts that ignore his service and lack of charges.