Princeton Community Democratic Organization endorses Altman over Hamawy 65%-29%
The Princeton Community Democratic Organization, a key Central Jersey grassroots progressive group, held a forum with all 17 of the Democratic candidates running for the 12th congressional district last night, and Sue Altman emerged with the group’s endorsement.
Altman, a former leader of the state Working Families Party and the 2024 Democratic nominee for the neighboring 7th district, got 65% of the vote in the second round of voting, while Adam Hamawy, a former Army combat surgeon, got 29%. (Six percent of ballots did not rank either Altman or Hamawy.)
In the first round of voting, Altman got 55 votes (36%) and Hamawy got 29 (19%). They were followed by Princeton professor Sam Wang (18 votes, 12%), Assemblywoman Verlina Reynolds-Jackson (17 votes, 11%), and former Energy Department official Jay Vaingankar (13 votes, 8%), all of whom live in Mercer County. The other 12 candidates in attendance received six or fewer votes each; four of them got no votes at all.
(The PCDO conducts endorsement votes using an instant runoff ranked-choice system: participants can rank as many candidates as they wish on their ballots, and the top two vote-getters advance to the second round, at which point ballots cast for any other candidate are re-allocated to the two finalists. Endorsements are awarded to any candidate who crosses the 60% threshold either in the first or second round of calculations.)
The endorsement gives Altman important grassroots momentum in a town that’s home to a large number of Democratic primary voters – and, perhaps more importantly, plenty of potential campaign volunteers, many of whom canvassed for Altman during her unsuccessful campaign to flip the 7th district from red to blue in 2024. The fact that Hamawy, who is on his first run for elected office, finished in a strong second place is a good sign for him as well.
It’s also a show of strength for Altman ahead of the February 26 Mercer County Democratic convention, when rank-and-file Mercer Democrats from across the 12th district will vote to endorse a successor to retiring Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-Ewing).