Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York) has endorsed Adam Hamawy in New Jersey’s 12th congressional district, yet another important get for a candidate who has staked his campaign on locking down the district’s progressive lane.
“In Congress, Adam will fight for Medicare for All, abolishing ICE, universal childcare, and making a New Jersey where working people can thrive,” the congresswoman’s campaign account posted in a brief statement on social media.
Hamawy, a plastic surgeon and U.S. Army veteran, was previously endorsed by Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont), the godfather of the country’s modern progressive movement, as well as Justice Democrats and a variety of other progressive groups.
In a district that may have the most left-wing electorate in all of New Jersey, that’s a powerful coalition, especially when several other candidates like former Working Families Party state director Sue Altman, Assemblywoman Verlina Reynolds-Jackson (D-Trenton), and Somerset County Commissioner Shanel Robinson (D-Franklin) are explicitly running as progressives. Local activist groups and unions have split their support among several candidates, but Hamawy is the only one with serious national backing.
That has echoes of the special election for New Jersey’s 11th district earlier this year, when Analilia Mejia rode on the support of figures like Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez to score an upset victory over several better-funded foes with more local endorsements.
And unlike Mejia, Hamawy is by far the best-funded candidate in the 12th district race: he’s raised more than $1 million for his own campaign, and a pro-Palestine super PAC has spent another $1.5 million on ads supporting him. Even though he’s never run for office before, that may be enough to make him the frontrunner to succeed retiring Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-Ewing).