Mahmoud Desouky

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Mahmoud Desouky

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Elections and appointments
Last election

June 10, 2025

Education

High school

South Brunswick High School

Bachelor's

Rutgers University, 2024

Personal
Religion
Muslim
Profession
Business owner
Contact

Mahmoud Desouky (Democratic Party) ran for election to the New Jersey General Assembly to represent District 16. He lost in the Democratic primary on June 10, 2025.

Desouky completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2025. Click here to read the survey answers.

Biography

Mahmoud Desouky graduated from South Brunswick High School. He earned a bachelor's degree from Rutgers University in 2024. His career experience includes working as a business owner.[1]

Elections

2025

See also: New Jersey General Assembly elections, 2025

General election

General election for New Jersey General Assembly District 16 (2 seats)

Incumbent Mitchelle Drulis, incumbent Roy Freiman, Catherine Payne, and Scott Sipos are running in the general election for New Jersey General Assembly District 16 on November 4, 2025.


Candidate Connection = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Democratic primary election

Democratic primary for New Jersey General Assembly District 16 (2 seats)

Incumbent Mitchelle Drulis and incumbent Roy Freiman defeated Mahmoud Desouky in the Democratic primary for New Jersey General Assembly District 16 on June 10, 2025.

Candidate
%
Votes
Image of Mitchelle Drulis
Mitchelle Drulis
 
44.7
 
16,899
Image of Roy Freiman
Roy Freiman
 
44.3
 
16,745
Mahmoud Desouky Candidate Connection
 
11.0
 
4,140

Total votes: 37,784
Candidate Connection = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.

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Republican primary election

Republican primary for New Jersey General Assembly District 16 (2 seats)

Scott Sipos and Catherine Payne advanced from the Republican primary for New Jersey General Assembly District 16 on June 10, 2025.

Candidate
%
Votes
Scott Sipos
 
51.6
 
12,113
Catherine Payne
 
48.4
 
11,367

Total votes: 23,480
Candidate Connection = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.

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Endorsements

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Campaign themes

2025

Ballotpedia survey responses

See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection

Candidate Connection

Mahmoud Desouky completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2025. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Desouky's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.

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Mahmoud Desouky is the son of Egyptian immigrants and came to New Jersey at the age of three and has grown up with a deep passion for politics, justice, and community empowerment. A tireless grassroots organizer, Mahmoud has been at the heart of local and national movements, whether serving on the organizing team for Bernie Sanders’ 2020 presidential campaign or as an intern for Congressional Representative Bonnie Watson Coleman. Mahmoud now brings his fight to the New Jersey State Assembly in Legislative District 16, determined to create a government that listens to its people. Mahmoud is committed to ensuring that no resident of New Jersey is left behind—believing that no one should live paycheck to paycheck, rely on food stamps to survive, or earn a substandard wage. As he goes from neighborhood to neighborhood, he listens, learns, and advocates for reforms that bring comfort, dignity, and economic mobility to working families. More than a politician, Mahmoud sees himself as a public servant, dedicated to building a future that works for everyone.
  • Protecting and Advancing Free Speech: Living in America as a young activist and as a former student leader at Rutgers University, Mahmoud believes that free speech is a pillar of democracy and is predominantly important when fostering innovation, civic engagement and providing an environment where a community can thrive. Mahmoud believes that protecting free speech is about upholding our constitutional rights and ensuring that all residents, regardless of background or belief, can participate fairly in public discourse. The Trump administration has actively sought to undermine our First Amendment protections, however, Mahmoud aims to ensure that no political agenda can erode such fundamental freedoms.
  • Affordability: A Fresh Start for New Jersey Families. As a young person & small business owner, Mahmoud understands the affordability challenges that families & individuals in NJ face daily. Mahmoud believes it is critical to enact policies that lower the cost of living, improve housing accessibility and supply, and support economic stability for all Jerseyans. As a State Assemblyman, Mahmoud would support a temporary cap on all rent increases across the state at cost-of-living adjustments to stabilize costs and support regulations on private equity and investment firms from pricing out everyday families and aspiring first-time homeowners. In an era of a growing wealth gap, Mahmoud promises to champion innovative & practical solutions.
  • Ensuring Environmental Sustainability and Clean Energy For All: As a member of Gen Z, Mahmoud is acutely aware of the current climate crisis that residents of NJ face. That is why on his first day as a State Assembly member, Mahmoud will co-sponsor or support legislation such as the “Climate Superfund Act”, the “Climate Corporate Data Accountability Act”, & resolutions to require data centers to obtain their electricity from new zero- or low-emission sources of energy. NJ has set an ambitious target of achieving 100% clean energy by 2035, & as an Assembly member Mahmoud will ensure that NJ stays on track to achieving environmental sustainability and a just energy transition for all.
This is a grassroots campaign challenging the current incumbents. There must be change to the establishment. This is not my campaign, this is OURS. A fight for OUR communities, a fight for OUR youth and a fight for justice and humanity. We will work together to protect our freedom of speech rights, ensure environmental sustainability and a just clean energy transition for all, maintain affordability and promote home ownership, protect immigrants' rights, ensure electoral transparency, tackle the increasing wealth gap, and fight back against the oligarchy that controls our government right now. Trump is an unprecedented danger to our civil liberties and union, and the residents of NJ District 16 deserve new and unprecedented leadership.
An elected official must have good character, be truthful, transparent, humble, well-informed, considerate, kind, be a good listener, and perhaps most importantly be empathetic to all constituents.
I am a relatable, communicative, empathetic, and humble person and I believe such qualities will make me a successful officeholder. I am able to listen compassionately, see issues and problems from various perspectives, and work collaboratively to implement solutions that are conducive to diverse groups.
I believe the core responsibilities for someone elected to office is to represent the will and opinions of their constituents as much as possible, rather than listening to corporations, property developers, campaign donors, political bosses, party leaders, or lobbyists. An elected official must be responsive to the concerns of their constituents and that only happens when they make themselves available to meet and listen to their constituents and are able to empathize with their concerns. As an elected official I promise to listen to all perspectives on any legislative manner and support community organizations and advocates in the district as often those are the ones who are on the "front lines" fighting for progressive causes.
The multiple affordability crises as it relates to healthcare costs, the cost of living, and energy affordability, shortage of housing supply, staying on track to achieve 100% clean energy by 2035, and strengthening our climate resiliency are some of the greatest challenges that NJ will face over the next decade.
Although it certainly helps legislators to have previous experience in government or politics, I don't believe it is necessary as long as a candidate takes the time to listen to constituents, develops relationships throughout the community, and is well-informed on key policy issues that affect the district.
Financial transparency and government accountability are fundamental to a successful democratic society. Financial transparency and government accountability are only achieved when we have strong campaign finance regulations, make it easier for more people to run for office, and support third-party organizations like Open Secrets which collect valuable data on campaign donations. Additionally, we need to make it easier to access public and government records, need to maintain and support independent and local journalism, and empower advocacy organizations.

Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.

Campaign finance summary

Campaign finance information for this candidate is not yet available from OpenSecrets. That information will be published here once it is available.

See also


External links

Footnotes

  1. Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on April 22, 2025


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