N.J.-12 candidates meet at Princeton Windrows in first forum of general election

All four candidates in the general election race for New Jersey’s 12th congressional district met at the Princeton Windrows retirement community on Tuesday. The event, the first major candidate forum since the June primary, was hosted by the Greater Princeton Area chapter of the League of Women Voters and was open to Princeton Windrows residents and several members of the press.

The candidates discussed a wide range of issues including affordability, immigration and immigration enforcement, voting rights, and political corruption at the forum. No future debates or forums have been announced for the race thus far.

Adam Hamawy won the race’s crowded Democratic primary on June 2, which had 12 active candidates on Election Day. Hamawy, who is widely expected to win in a district where registered Democrats more than double the number of registered Republicans, will face off against Republican candidate Gregg Mele, Green Party candidate Andres Jinete, and independent candidate Winston Jordan. The Cook Political Report has rated the race as “Solid Democrat,” the most favorable rating for Democrats.

The seat is open following Democratic Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman’s announcement that she would not seek reelection last November.

During the primary election, Hamawy was endorsed by Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., among other progressive leaders. He has continued to align himself with many of the most left-leaning Democratic candidates and members of Congress.

In August, Hamawy campaigned in Michigan for Abdul El-Sayed and Donavan McKinney, who went on to win their Democratic primaries for U.S. Senate and Michigan’s 13th congressional district, respectively, against less progressive and better funded opponents. He also endorsed Darializa Avila Chevalier in her New York primary and Melat Kiros in her Colorado primary, two members of the Democratic Socialists of America whose victories contributed to the group’s insurgent rise this summer. Hamawy is not a member of DSA.

In the forum, however, Jinete worked to position himself as more left-leaning than Hamawy.

Hamawy, for example, supports the data center moratorium introduced by Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez, which calls for a “reasonable pause” on development while legislative safeguards are developed. Jinete instead called for a complete ban on data centers.

“A moratorium is just breadcrumbs. We need a full-on ban,” he said.

Jinete, who is a local activist and a member of the Central Jersey Tenant Union, also criticized Watson Coleman for the hundreds of thousands of dollars she has received from pharmaceutical-related political action committees (PACs), during her time in Congress.

“Our current incumbent is funded by [the] pharmaceutical industry, and she will never introduce a bill that would ban patents, for example, for medicine,” Jinete said. Hamawy has largely praised Watson Coleman’s progressive legacy and was endorsed by her.

Though Hamawy has stated that he will not accept what he describes as “corporate PAC money” or money from “corrupt special interests,” Jordan has taken the uncommon position of not accepting money from any individual or organization, regardless of the source.

Throughout the forum, Jordan repeatedly returned to the issue of “call time” in his responses, referring to the practice of some members of Congress to spend significant time, often hours each day, calling potential donors at party “call centers” in Washington D.C. He said he would support the “Stop Act,” which would ban members of Congress from directly asking people for money and used the issue to separate himself from Hamawy.

Jordan argued that, even if Hamawy does not intend to call influential donors regularly, not doing so could increase the risk of a well-funded primary challenger the next campaign cycle. “I can provide resistance as an outsider. That’s what nonpartisanship brings to the table.”

He added that he left the Democratic party after Kamala Harris’ 2024 presidential election loss because he “just got tired of losing.” He has served in various IT positions across pharmaceutical and technology companies previously.

Mele, a New Jersey lawyer with a background in finance, also had a unique proposal for campaign finance reform. Besides echoing the statements of other candidates criticizing Citizens United, the landmark 2010 Supreme Court decision that opened federal elections to unlimited spending from corporations and outside groups, Mele suggested that campaign donations could instead be made to a particular race, rather than an individual candidate, and be split evenly among all candidates. This, he said, would promote fairness “whether it’s a lot of money or a little money in politics.”

While the other candidates advocated for varying degrees of increased government intervention to support people economically and make healthcare more affordable, Mele separated himself by praising the free market.

“The best performance economically anywhere in history is when the free market can do things,” Mele said. “You have to give some room for economic activity to work in order to bring salaries up, reduce costs of other things, have more competition.”

Mele also differentiated himself with his support for Israel.

“I do support Israel as our ally in the Middle East,” Mele said. He continued the response by strongly criticizing Iran and warning that effective negotiation with the country was not possible due to what he characterized as dishonest leadership.

Hamawy provided a starkly different view on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, speaking from his own experience as an army combat surgeon veteran who volunteered in Gaza on medical missions in 2024 and 2025.

“This is a genocide. Not because of something that I saw on television, not because of social media, but because I was personally there, witnessed it, and took care of the victims,” he said.

Aside from attending events in the district and supporting progressive candidates nationally, Hamawy traveled to Uruguay in late August for the Panamerican Congress, a gathering of leftist politicians throughout the Americas. He did so alongside several other Democratic primary winners and sitting House members.

Hamawy is also hosting “listening tour” events in each of the district’s four counties.

The general election will occur on Nov. 3, and the winner will represent the district in Congress beginning in January.

Oliver Wu is the assistant News editor for the ‘Prince’ leading town coverage, focused on the Municipality of Princeton and beyond. He is from Stony Brook, N.Y., and can be reached at oliver.wu[at]dailyprincetonian.com.

Please send any corrections to corrections[at]dailyprincetonian.com.