And Egyptian Americans made it to Capitol Hill — in the loudest, most historic way!

4 November is a unique date in modern Egyptian history.

It was on this day in 1922 that a young Egyptian boy stumbled upon the first step of a staircase in the Valley of the Kings in Luxor, leading to the rediscovery of a lost king who would become one of the most famous pharaohs in Egyptian and world history: King Tutankhamun.

It was also on this day in 2026 that Egyptian Americans made history, winning seats in the US Capitol in one of the most important and controversial elections of the 21st century in the United States.

US voters elected Democrat Dr Abdelrahman El-Sayed to represent Michigan in the US Senate. El-Sayed made history as the first Muslim and the first American of Egyptian origin to become a US senator, after standing his ground and even firing back at the US president himself.

US voters also elected Democrat Dr Adam El-Hamawy to represent New Jersey's 12th Congressional District. El-Hamawy is the first American of Egyptian origin ever elected to the US House of Representatives.

El-Sayed secured more than 2.5 million votes, winning 52.5 per cent of the vote against Republican Mike Rogers, who received 45.5 per cent.

I don't care what is said about Abdul, but it is enough for me that he reportedly made AIPAC spend between $22 million and $32 million trying to defeat him, whether in the Democratic primaries or the midterm elections.

I don't understand why or how, because, realistically speaking, it will take more than Abdul to stop the United States' blind support for Israel.

Unlike any other candidate, Abdul became one of Trump's main targets in recent weeks, attracting the president's racist and Islamophobic attacks almost as much as Ilhan Omar.

Ironically, Abdul did not just fire back at Trump and his cronies with what I can only describe as "pure Alexandrian cheekiness"; he also won. And he won big, becoming one of the new stars of US politics.

In New Jersey, Hamawy won an even more decisive victory, securing more than 160,000 votes, or 70.16 per cent, against Republican Gregg Mele, who received 28.34 per cent.

These were not symbolic victories or appointments; they were electoral mandates from American voters.

Abdul studied political science and biology at the University of Michigan, graduating with highest distinction in 2007.

He delivered a speech at the University of Michigan's 2007 commencement ceremony, attended by former US President Bill Clinton, who was reportedly deeply moved by it.

As a student, Abdul El-Sayed delivered a speech at the University of Michigan’s 2007 commencement ceremony. Bill Clinton, visibly moved, said, "I wish every person in the world could’ve heard you speak today." Today, nearly 2 decades later, the whole world is listening to Abdul. https://t.co/GcsaLaHFgG

— Mona Farooq Ahmad (@MonaChaudhryy) November 5, 2026

Democratic Americans are now sharing photographs comparing Abdul shaking hands with Clinton in 2007 to Clinton shaking hands with JFK in the 1960s.

He earned a doctorate in public health at Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar, followed by a medical degree from Columbia University, where he became an epidemiology professor. He went on to lead Detroit's public health department.

El-Sayed's political outlook has been shaped by his Egyptian family background, his career in public healthcare and his exposure to economic and social inequalities.

His work in Detroit brought him face-to-face with the realities of poverty and unequal access to healthcare, helping shape his support for Medicare for All and broader economic reforms.

Gaza added another defining dimension to his politics, as he increasingly challenged US military support for Israel, arguing that taxpayers' money should be spent addressing the needs of ordinary Americans rather than funding wars abroad.

Abdul in his winning speech

Politically, El-Sayed also represents the growing social-democratic and progressive current within the Democratic Party, which has been challenging the party's traditional establishment over economic inequality, healthcare, corporate influence and US foreign policy.

In a way, he is the opposite of RFK Jr. (I have not forgotten what he said about Arabs). Ironically, his aunt, Jackie Kennedy, supervised the publication of Naguib Mahfouz's novels in the United States when she worked in publishing.

Now, to Adam Hamawy, who actually surprised many.

What makes Hamawy's election particularly significant is his firsthand experience in Gaza. An experienced plastic and reconstructive surgeon and retired US Army lieutenant colonel who served in Iraq, he travelled to Gaza in May 2024 as part of a 19-member medical mission organised by the Palestinian American Medical Association, working at the European Hospital near Khan Younis.

️ Democrat Adam Hamawy becomes New Jersey's first Muslim member of US Congress, defeating Republican Gregg Mele in 12th District, AP reports Iraq War veteran and surgeon carried out humanitarian medical missions in Gaza, Bosnia, Sudan, Lebanon and Syria, later campaigning to end US military aid to Israel ️ In 2024 interview with Anadolu from Gaza, Hamawy described severe medical supply shortages and said he stayed behind with international colleagues while awaiting safe passage after other American medical workers evacuated https://t.co/LPwBXIuaED

— Anadolu English (@anadoluagency) November 4, 2026

For three weeks, he treated Palestinians wounded in Israeli attacks, including large numbers of children who had suffered devastating injuries and traumatic amputations. He later returned to Gaza on another medical mission in 2025.

During his first mission, he and his colleagues became trapped in the Strip after Israeli forces seized the Rafah crossing.

El-Hamawy in Gaza 

When an evacuation opportunity arose, Hamawy refused to leave without assurances that his non-American colleagues could also get out.

He posed for a photograph with a group of doctors and journalists, including Mariam Abu Daqa and Mohamed Salama.

Hamawy (far right), late Mohamed Salama (second from left), Mariam Abu Daqa (standing)

The two journalists, Mohamed Salama, a cameraman for Al Jazeera, and Mariam Abu Daqa, a photojournalist who worked with the Associated Press and Independent Arabia, were killed on 25 August 2025 in an Israeli strike targeting Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis, southern Gaza.

After returning to the United States, he took his testimony to Washington, meeting officials and lawmakers to describe what he had witnessed.

He has said that his experience in Gaza made it impossible for him to return to his previous life without trying to change the policies behind what he had seen. His campaign subsequently adopted the slogan "Healthcare, not bombs", and he called for an end to US military aid to Israel.

Despite coming from two different generations, I know both men come from Egyptian families who insisted that they should become doctors before joining politics or the army. You know, that big university certificate that Egyptian parents insist their children must have!

Both El-Sayed and Hamawy have been accused of being radical Islamists and other such things.

Now, as an Egyptian who has studied, researched and worked on the Muslim Brotherhood and other radical Islamist groups, I would like to clear up a few points.

First, Abdul supports LGBTQ rights. In fact, his half-sister, Eman Abdel Hady, is queer. This alone would make the Muslim Brotherhood not only reject El-Sayed from its ranks but also question his faith, despite his wife being veiled and even leading prayers.

People like Abdul are what fundamentalists have recently started calling "cute Muslims". The Brotherhood is, or used to be, pragmatic, but it has drawn a line when it comes to homosexuality.

Adam Hamawy served in the US Army during the Iraq War and was decorated for his service. Again, those Islamist groups would question his Islam. Hamawy was actually a target of militant groups in Iraq and was considered an invader.

There is no taqiyya here, nor are there any hidden agendas.

We are talking about major issues that real Islamist movements understand very well.

Official Egypt and its mainstream media have not celebrated El-Sayed's victory because he has criticised the Egyptian regime, described it as military rule and said he wants to cut off US military aid to Egypt, just as he wants to end military aid to Israel.

The mainstream media has instead repeated accusations that Abdul is a Muslim Brotherhood member who supports gay people and is poised to become the next Obama, adding him to its long list of conspiracy theories.

Unofficially, Egyptians celebrated the remarkable achievement of Abdul, who taunted US President Donald Trump, the bully, and won. Social media was full of memes and jokes about how it was easier to get elected to the US Senate than to win a seat on a local council in a tiny Egyptian village."The government hasn't even finished drafting the law yet!"

At another time, the Egyptian Embassy in Washington would have celebrated El-Sayed and El-Hamawy. Maybe, in the future, it will, inshallah. (Actually, I am referring to the inshallah that eventually turns into hamdallah!)

Historically, before El-Sayed became senator-elect, Democrat George Helmy had become the first Coptic Orthodox Christian and the first Egyptian American to serve as an appointed US senator, although only for 90 days in 2024.

Helmy and family with Schumer after swearing-in
at the Senate in August 2024

Ironically, he was appointed to replace none other than disgraced former US Senator Bob Menendez, who was convicted of illegally receiving money from the Egyptian government and acting as its unregistered agent.

Not many people back home in Egypt know about Helmy because the mainstream media largely ignored him to avoid discussing why he had replaced Menendez. At the same time, Helmy himself kept his distance from Egypt and Egyptians to avoid any association with the Egyptian government.

Despite the disgusting Islamophobic and Arabophobic campaign led by Donald Trump, eight Muslim Americans are heading to Capitol Hill: one to the Senate and seven to the House of Representatives.

I also cannot ignore Ruwa Romman, the Palestinian-American politician from Georgia who was denied a speaking slot at the 2024 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, when Kamala Harris was accepting the party's presidential nomination.

Romman had hoped to give Palestinian-American voices a platform amid the Biden administration's support for Israel's war on Gaza, but the Democratic leadership refused to allow a Palestinian-American speaker on the convention's main stage.

Two years later, she has made history again, winning a seat in the Georgia State Senate and becoming the first Palestinian American elected to that chamber. It is quite a journey from being denied a microphone at a party convention to winning an election and securing a seat in the legislature.

There are also many people we should remember and learn from because they helped pave the way. One of them was Helen Thomas, the pioneering Arab-American journalist who became an icon of the White House press corps.

Many other names and faces helped make what once seemed impossible possible for Muslim and Arab Americans in the post-9/11 era. It started with Keith Ellison, followed by the original sisters who, I believe, broke the ice and walked through fire, encouraging hundreds of Arab and Muslim Americans to engage in politics: Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib.

I know many Egyptians, especially younger ones, look at the United States, and at El-Sayed and El-Hamawy, and feel that they are a million light-years away from that kind of representative democracy, particularly now, amid calls to amend the Egyptian Constitution and discussions about introducing new requirements for anyone seeking to run for president.

I won't pretend that Egypt did not have its own experience of liberal parliamentary democracy between the 1920s and 1950s, despite all the shortcomings of that period. Nor will I forget that, after the 2011 Revolution, I personally witnessed genuinely democratic elections and a parliamentary experience that, for all its flaws and everything that happened afterwards, was real.

But it is not a million light-years away.

To all those who feel desperate: just 20 years ago, no one in the American Muslim community could have imagined that they would live to see a time when New York would have a young, proudly Muslim mayor, a Muslim US senator, or a group of Muslim members of Congress openly standing up and speaking out against the US president and Israel, as well as AIPAC. Back then, such a prospect would have seemed like madness.

I still remember my mother's aunt, who has been a US citizen in Michigan since the 1960s, telling us how, after 9/11, she discovered that their telephone calls were being recorded and tapped, and how Fox News turned their lives into hell.

That gives you an idea of just how much El-Sayed and El-Hamawy have achieved.

It just takes a long road, perseverance and genuine, sincere intentions.

Inshallah, I will write a post like this about Egyptian elections again.

And yes, I am happy that Egyptian Americans made it to Capitol Hill in the loudest way ever.