Republican rhetoric and negative press over New Jersey Democrat Adam Hamawy’s past ties to jihadists failed to keep him from being elected to Congress in his heavily blue district.

Hamawy, a doctor and U.S. Army veteran, won 70% of votes on Tuesday despite months of controversy over his interactions with several radical figures leading up to a 1995 terrorism trial in which he testified. Conservatives also cast suspicion on his loyalties over his 1994 humanitarian work in Bosnia for Benevolence International Foundation, a charity later shut down by the Treasury Department for funding Osama bin Laden’s al Qaeda.

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