One month into his congressional run, Jack Schlossberg, John F. Kennedy’s only grandson, is already looking for a reset.
Schlossberg, 32, has parted ways with his campaign manager, Annabel Lassally, whom he had appointed just a month ago to oversee his bid for a congressional seat in New York.
Lassally, the former comms director for New York City’s comptroller-elect Mark Levine, confirmed her departure from Schlossberg’s campaign to Politico. The circumstances surrounding her departure are unclear.
The Daily Beast has reached out to Schlossberg’s campaign and Lassally for comment.
“We continue to grow post-launch as the only campaign with a plan focused on local issues and progressive policy,” a representative for Schlossberg wrote in a statement to Politico. “We will be announcing our new campaign headquarters very soon. It’s all systems go!”
It appears Schlossberg’s other staffers—finance director Paige Phillips, an alum of Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand’s campaign, and operations director Eli Hinerfeld, a former deputy campaign manager for NYC comptroller candidate Justin Brannan—are still on the trail.
Schlossberg, a social-media star who has amassed some 800,000 followers on Instagram and nearly a million on TikTok, announced his candidacy for the open seat last month, with a buzzy rollout that included a lengthy New York Times profile and television appearances. He used the Times interview to say he was “very straight.” His campaign gained even more traction after his 35-year-old sister, Tatiana, revealed in a heartbreaking essay last month that she was diagnosed with terminal cancer.
But the attention came with criticism, especially over his campaign’s lack of direction and specific policies.
The Yale and Harvard graduate unveiled 12 ways he promised to serve New York’s 12th District in Manhattan—among them: “optimism, positivity, courage, strength.”
“Great branding, cute and sticky catch phrase. Horrible execution lmfao. Creativity? Courage? You’re trying to go to Congress not NYU,” wrote Democratic political strategist Maya Luna in one X post.
The son of former Biden-appointed ambassador Caroline Kennedy and artist Edwin Schlossberg isn’t the only one eyeing the open seat. At least ten people are vying to replace Jerry Nadler, who will retire next year after serving in Congress since 1992.
Among them are Parkland school-shooting survivor Cameron Kasky, 25, who hosted Schlossberg on his Bulwark podcast FYPod in July.
CNN also reported that George Conway, the ex-husband of former Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway, is weighing a run as an independent.
Kasky seemingly took aim at Schlossberg’s so-called lack of platform in a November interview with Vanity Fair.
“Schlossberg is amazing at getting views and clicks. He understands the social media game in a way that I could only hope to catch up to,” Kasky, 25, told the outlet.
“But at the end of the day, social media is not how you’re going to win….You are going to win by having clear, moral, and equitable positions on the issues that are concerning to Americans.”
Schlossberg and his family, however, aren’t afraid to take clear positions on contentious issues—including familial ones. The scion has been one of the most outspoken critics of his mother’s first cousin, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President Donald Trump’s Health and Human Services Secretary, who has spearheaded the “Make America Healthy Again” campaign.
Schlossberg was one of the first members of the Kennedy clan to speak out against RFK Jr.’s anti-vax positions, regularly lampooning him in social-media comedy sketches.
On Nov. 22, the 62nd anniversary of the assassination of Kennedy, Schlossberg’s older sister, Tatiana, also criticized RFK Jr. in an essay in The New Yorker.
After revealing she was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia (AML), a rare and rapidly progressing cancer of the blood and bone marrow.
In the moving essay describing her diagnosis—caught after a routine blood test following the birth of her daughter in May 2024—Tatiana wrote about the fear her family experienced during her treatment, which unfolded as RFK Jr. took a national role advancing Trump administration health policies.
“Throughout my treatment, [RFK Jr.] had been on the national stage: previously a Democrat, he was running for president as an Independent, but mostly as an embarrassment to me and the rest of my immediate family,” she wrote.
Schlossberg showed support for his sister afterward, posting “Life is short—let it rip,” on Instagram.
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