A newly formed PAC with a mission of countering the influence of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee is making its first move in New Jersey.
Peace, Leadership, and Accountability PAC, which was founded in February to support pro-Paletine congressional candidates, announced this morning that it is endorsing Adam Hamawy for New Jersey’s 12th congressional district. Hamawy faces 12 Democratic primary opponents – many of them fellow progressives – in the race to succeed retiring Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-Ewing).
“As a physician, he has witnessed the destruction wrought by our tax dollars abroad, while seeing his own patients struggle to afford the healthcare they need at home,” PAL PAC executive director Margaret DeReus said of Hamawy, who was briefly trapped in Gaza while delivering medical aid in 2024. “He is a witness with a mandate to ensure our resources fund healthcare at home, not Israel’s war crimes abroad.”
As a new group, PAL PAC’s influence remains untested, and it’s certainly unlikely to match the tremendously well-funded AIPAC dollar-for-dollar. AIPAC directly or indirectly spent close to $4 million in the special Democratic primary for New Jersey’s 11th district last month; the pro-Israel group has not yet said if it has a preferred candidate in the 12th district or if it intends to spent money on their behalf.
But the Institute for Middle East Understanding Policy Project, which is affiliated with PAL PAC, has made a handful of expenditures on congressional races around the country; a different group with a similar mission called American Priorities has pledged to spend “at least $10 million” on congressional primaries and dropped $600,000 on a North Carolina primary earlier this month.
In an expensive district like New Jersey’s 12th, any outside spending could be a boon to Hamawy, who is already one of the field’s best-funded candidates. And more broadly, PAL PAC’s endorsement is a signal that the progressive infrastructure fueling some of America’s most left-wing politicians likes Hamawy the best out of the 12th district’s crowded 13-candidate field.
Hamawy, an Egyptian American who would be the first Muslim elected to Congress from New Jersey (and only the sixth in U.S. history), had previously gotten endorsements from the Council on American-Islamic Relations Action, the New Jersey Muslim Civic Coalition Action, Americans for Justice in Palestine Action, and former Assemblywoman Sadaf Jaffer (D-Montgomery), a vocal Israel critic.