More than 20 years after Tammy Duckworth’s helicopter was shot down in Iraq, the Democratic senator from Illinois is endorsing a surgeon she credits with helping save her life.
Physician Adam Hamawy, an Army veteran and former combat surgeon, on Thursday launched a campaign for New Jersey’s 12th Congressional District, a heavily Democratic seat currently represented by retiring Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman.
Duckworth said in a statement that when the two first met, Hamawy had “volunteered to serve in combat and worked around the clock to save my life, just as he has for many others.”
“It is because of his sacrifice, that I’m not only alive — but I’ve been able to go on to serve my country and the people of Illinois in the United States Senate,” the senator added. “Working families in New Jersey and all across America are looking for leaders with the courage to speak truth to power, the willingness to call out injustices at home and abroad, and the determination to spend every day working to make their lives better. Dr. Hamawy is that leader, and I’m so proud to be his friend and endorse his campaign for Congress.”
The pair have known each other for more than two decades, going back to when Hamawy encountered Duckworth in Iraq in the hours after she sustained injuries that led her to lose both legs and the partial use of her right arm.
Speaking about his relationship with the senator on Thursday, Hamawy pointed to a 2024 episode in which he was stranded in Gaza alongside other aid workers amid Israel’s war with Hamas.
“We did save each other’s life,” Hamaway said.
Duckworth used her post in Congress to help Hamawy, who had been in the region working with other doctors to administer emergency medical assistance to Palestinians.
“My team got trapped. We couldn’t leave, and she was instrumental in helping us get out,” Hamawy said. “I mean, there was really no way for a while. There was no one that was listening to us, and we weren’t given an option of when or how, and she stepped in.”
The senator’s efforts included working with Biden administration officials and speaking with Israeli Ambassador Michael Herzog to urge the Israeli government to allow Hamawy and other aid workers to cross the border from Rafah.
“That’s our tie, basically, being in the service,” Hamawy said. “That we don’t leave anyone behind. We know that, you know, we are there for each other.”
Now, Hamawy, a native of Princeton, New Jersey, is running for Congress.
“Politics was never my plan,” Hamawy said in his campaign launch video, after highlighting his work as a surgeon in Iraq, in Gaza and in New York after 9/11. “But I’ve lived these struggles hands-on. I’m running for Congress to fight for health care, for our veterans, for all of us here at home — and to put humanity first. I’ve gotten my hands dirty my whole life. Now I’m ready to do it again.”
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One of the central priorities of his campaign, Hamawy told NBC News, is to highlight the amount of money being spent abroad that he argues should be spent at home instead.
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“I have experience overseas. I understand how foreign policy affects us here at home,” he said.
“We could watch the news and what’s happening with wars, what’s happening with our relationships with other countries. But that really does impact us here every single day, and some of these resources that we’re spending can be used, actually, to help us here, you know, in our hometowns, in our hospitals, in our schools,” the surgeon added.
He pointed to his experience working in health care back home as well, saying, “I see every day how this health care system is just getting worse every single year. It’s frustrating for the patients. It’s frustrating for the doctors. I mean, we’re blocked every day from providing the care because of the insurance companies, because of the bureaucracy.”
“I don’t think that perspective is in Washington,” Hamawy added.
He is one of almost a dozen Democrats running in a June 2 primary election to succeed Watson Coleman.
The retiring congresswoman hasn’t yet endorsed in the race, but she and Hamawy have a long-standing relationship. In 2025, Watson Coleman brought Hamawy as her guest to President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address to Congress.
The Army veteran said, if elected, he’d plan to carry Watson Coleman’s legacy forward.
“She has some big shoes that we have to try to fill,” Hamawy said, later adding that the congresswoman “has been one of those fearless people in Congress who’s not afraid to speak up and talk about difficult issues. And I want to continue that and take it farther.”
