Two Democratic Frontrunners — One Tied to Al-Qaeda, One Can’t Say Israel Should Exist

Jewish Insider broke two separate stories this morning that together define the 2026 Democratic primary problem for pro-Israel voters. In New Jersey’s CD-12, leading candidate Adam Hamawy — endorsed by Omar, Khanna, and Bernie Sanders — is now tied to a Bosnia-based Al-Qaeda front organization he volunteered for, and once served as translator for the ‘Blind Sheikh’ convicted of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. In Michigan, Senate frontrunner Abdul El-Sayed told a room of Jewish supporters he ‘struggles’ to say Israel has a right to exist as a Jewish state. Both men are leading in their primaries. Neither has disavowed.

• Hamawy volunteered with Benevolence International Foundation, a Bosnian NGO later shuttered for funneling money to Al-Qaeda, and testified on behalf of Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman at his 1995 terrorism trial.
• El-Sayed told his own ‘Jews for Abdul’ fundraiser in Pontiac, Michigan that he ‘struggles’ when asked whether Israel should exist as a Jewish state — a recording obtained by Jewish Insider.
• Hamawy is the frontrunner in the race to succeed retiring Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-NJ) with endorsements from the Squad and Sanders; CD-12 is a safe Democratic seat.
• El-Sayed leads the Michigan Senate primary by 10 points over Mallory McMorrow and 11 points over Elissa Slotkin surrogate Angela Slotkin, per Mitchell Research polling this month.
• Neither story has produced a party response as of Wednesday morning; the DCCC has been silent on both races.

The Democratic Party's 2026 primary slate is producing candidates with documented ties to Islamist organizations and on-record ambiguity about Israel's existence — not as fringe challengers but as frontrunners with institutional backing. If Hamawy wins CD-12 and El-Sayed wins the Michigan Senate primary, the party will have normalized a category of candidate whose national security record and Israel positions would have been disqualifying in any prior Democratic cycle. The question is whether this is a temporary purging of guardrails or a permanent reset of the party's baseline.

Hundreds of protesters — led by Jewish and pro-Israel organizations — rallied outside Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s official residence in the first Jewish-organized demonstration at Gracie Mansion since his inauguration. The protest followed a week of accumulating grievances: his continued refusal to condemn pro-Hamas activity in the city, his skip of the Celebrate Israel Parade, and his aides’ documented anti-Israel social media history. New York’s buffer zone bill passed the state legislature Tuesday — but emerged weaker than Hochul’s original proposal, limiting protests only within 50 feet of religious institutions with only misdemeanor penalties.

• Hundreds gathered outside Gracie Mansion, chanting ‘Mamdani’s got to go’ — the first major Jewish-organized action targeting the new mayor directly at his residence.
• The New York buffer zone bill passed both chambers but was weakened to a Class B misdemeanor with a 50-foot limit, significantly less punitive than Hochul’s initial proposal.
• Mamdani’s political director previously shared videos calling Israel ‘evil’ and supporting BDS; no Mamdani staff member has faced discipline.
• New York City Council passed a buffer zone ordinance with a veto-proof majority, separate from the state bill, putting additional pressure on the mayor.

Mamdani is now governing against a mobilized Jewish community that has moved from cultural frustration to street-level political opposition within his first 100 days. The buffer zone bill's dilution — from a real deterrent to a largely symbolic misdemeanor — illustrates the difficulty of translating Jewish political pressure into substantive legal protection in a city whose governing coalition is structurally hostile.

Democrat Maureen Galindo — who called for imprisoning ‘Zionists’ in ICE detention and castrating ‘billionaire Zionists’ — lost Tuesday’s Texas CD-35 runoff 62-38% to Sheriff’s deputy Johnny Garcia. The party breathed a sigh of relief, but the result is not a clean win: Galindo’s 40% shows that in a heavily Latino Democratic primary, openly antisemitic messaging didn’t collapse. On the Republican side, Ken Paxton crushed John Cornyn 64-36% for the Senate nomination — elevating a scandal-plagued MAGA loyalist as the general election candidate against likely Democrat Steve Talarico, giving Democrats their clearest pickup opportunity in Texas in decades.

• Galindo received roughly 5,700 votes in the runoff despite near-universal condemnation from national and state Democratic leaders.
• Johnny Garcia, a Bexar County sheriff’s deputy, advances to the general election in CD-35, a heavily Latino district that includes San Antonio — a safe Democratic seat.
• Ken Paxton’s 64-36% win over Cornyn is a major MAGA consolidation; establishment donors and Republicans warned Paxton puts the seat in play for Democrats for the first time in a generation.
• Rep. Al Green (D-TX) also lost his primary runoff to Christian Menefee in the Houston-area CD-18, ending his 12-term career.
• DCCC is now targeting Paxton’s record; Democrats see the general as their best Senate opportunity in Texas this century.

The 40% Galindo received is the number that matters, not the 62% for Garcia. A candidate who explicitly called for jailing and castrating 'Zionists' held nearly two-in-five Democratic primary voters in a competitive runoff — that floor signals that explicit antisemitism now carries limited electoral cost in certain Democratic constituencies, even when party leadership is unified against it.

Organizers of the Rome Pride Parade announced that two Jewish LGBTQ organizations — Keshet Italia and Keshet Europe — will not be permitted to march with a float because they did not ‘distance themselves’ from what organizers call the ‘ongoing genocide in Gaza.’ The move applies a political litmus test uniquely to Jewish groups: non-Jewish LGBTQ organizations face no such requirement. Belgium’s security service released a separate report this week finding that the Jewish community remains the #1 target of extremist violence in Belgium for 2025.

• Keshet Italia and Keshet Europe are established Jewish LGBTQ organizations; they were barred solely for refusing to use the word ‘genocide’ in describing the Gaza conflict.
• Non-Jewish organizations participating in the Rome Pride Parade face no comparable ideological screening, making the policy explicitly discriminatory by origin.
• Belgium’s 2025 extremism threat report found the Jewish community remains the most targeted group in the country’s extremist threat landscape — a trend accelerating since October 7.
• The Rome decision follows similar incidents at UK, Canadian, and American pride events where Jewish groups have faced exclusion for pro-Israel positions or silence on Gaza.

The Rome Pride ban formalizes a new category of progressive discrimination: Jews are conditionally welcome in coalition spaces only if they perform ideological submission on Israel. This is a structurally different phenomenon from protest-level hostility — it is institutional gatekeeping by organizations that claim to oppose discrimination.