Hamawy is, indeed, best-funded Dem in packed NJ-12 race

The Democratic primary for retiring Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-Ewing)’s 12th district remains crowded and unpredictable, but one candidate, surgeon and Army veteran Adam Hamawy, has built himself a small financial lead.

Hamawy raised $546,965 in the 1st quarter, $120,000 more than the next-best fundraiser in the race, and is going into the election’s final two months with $420,106 left to spend. Hamawy is also perhaps the race’s most left-leaning candidate – an unusual distinction in a state where progressives frequently struggle to raise as much money as their establishment-backed foes.

The candidate who came closest to matching that in the 1st quarter was Sue Altman, who was the Democratic nominee for a neighboring congressional seat in 2024 and has carried over her fundraising skills from that race. Altman raised $406,375 in Q1 and had $273,497 left on-hand.

Other top fundraisers for the seat include East Brunswick Mayor Brad Cohen, who raised $145,115 in Q1 and $424,371 overall; Plainfield Mayor Adrian Mapp, who raised $286,517 in Q1 and $369,247 overall; and Princeton professor Sam Wang, who raised $307,107 during his first quarter in the race, $110,000 of it self-funded.

Further down the list: attorney Squire Servance has raised $268,556 (around $180,000 of it self-funded), former Energy Department official Jay Vaingankar has raised $261,350, Assemblywoman Verlina Reynolds-Jackson has raised $216,049, technology consultant Sujit Singh has raised $117,460 ($90,000 of it self-funded), Somerset County Commissioner Shanel Robinson has raised $114,054, former Middlesex Councilman Matt Adams has raised $72,218 (around $50,000 of it self-funded), fitness studio owner Kyle Little has raised $25,001, and entrepreneur Elijah Dixon has raised $7,980.

(One other tidbit: Rick Morales, an Army veteran and physician, raised a decent $125,130, but he disappeared prior to filing day and never submitted petitions to run. Three other candidates who also didn’t make it to filing day – Ray Heck, Iziah Thompson, and Mike Anderson – never raised much money.)

In the past, primaries for solidly blue districts like the 12th wouldn’t have been hugely expensive affairs, since the race would have been winnowed down or even decided by local parties long before voters got to weigh in. In the open 2014 race for the 12th district, Watson Coleman and her two main foes each raised around $300,000 to $400,000 for their entire primary campaigns.

Now that county parties’ influence is diminished, however, there’s more room for outsider candidates like Hamawy and Altman to pave a lane for themselves that doesn’t rely on party support. There’s also more risk for party-backed candidates like, say, Robinson, who has near-unanimous establishment support in Somerset County but who may not have the funds to reach many voters in an expensive media market.

One other X factor: independent expenditure groups, which played a big role in the recent special primary for New Jersey’s 11th district and which could completely reshape the race for the 12th district as well. In last month’s Illinois primaries, a constellation of pro-Israel, pro-cryptocurrency, and pro-AI PACs spent tens of millions of dollars to boost some candidates and tear down others, and 12th district Democrats are preparing for the possibility that some of those same groups may look to touch down in New Jersey.

This story was updated at 3:39 p.m. to correct Reynolds-Jackson’s fundraising totals.