Jack Schlossberg, the grandson of John F. Kennedy, said he would run for the congressional seat being vacated by Representative Jerrold Nadler, joining the crowded Democratic primary in an influential New York City district and continuing his family’s legacy in electoral politics.
Mr. Schlossberg, 32, is perhaps best known as a social-media political commentator and provocateur who has frequently weighed in on national issues. He shared the news of his campaign in an email to supporters on Tuesday night.
In an interview earlier on Tuesday, he said he felt the Democratic Party needed more voices to push back on perceived abuses of power by President Trump and his allies, arguing that a Democratic majority in the House of Representatives was the only way to restore democratic norms.
“There is nothing our party can’t do to address costs of living, corruption and the constitutional crisis that we’re in,” he said. “But without the control of Congress, there’s almost nothing that we can do.”
He has been especially critical — at times viciously so — of his cousin Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who, despite his skepticism of vaccines and of science-backed public health policies, now serves as health secretary under Mr. Trump.
When Mr. Nadler, a symbol of the Democratic old guard, announced in September that he would not seek re-election in New York’s 12th Congressional District after more than three decades in office, he acknowledged widespread calls for his party to embrace newer, younger faces.
Mr. Schlossberg, a relative newcomer to politics, is starting his campaign amid the rapid rise of Zohran Mamdani, the 34-year-old state assemblyman who was elected mayor of New York City this month. Mr. Mamdani, a democratic socialist who gained momentum as the candidate of young leftists, won with a broad coalition of support across ages, races and neighborhoods that could prompt a shift in strategy among other Democrats.
But though both men are younger millennials, Mr. Schlossberg does not have the same outsider image as Mr. Mamdani, who came up through the Democratic Socialists of America, and has lived in Uganda and South Africa. Mr. Schlossberg’s mother, Caroline Kennedy, served as ambassador to Australia under President Joseph R. Biden Jr., and both she and Mr. Schlossberg spoke at the Democratic National Convention in the summer of 2024.
But Mr. Schlossberg does share a particular attribute with Mr. Mamdani: social media savvy. He has more than 830,000 followers on TikTok, where has criticized Republicans for the government shutdown. On X, he has about 172,000 followers and has shared his thoughts on Jesus Christ’s body type and redistricting. He frequently posts on a range of topics, and said that his comfort online could be a boon to his party as it struggles to articulate a popular message.
Mr. Mamdani has not yet endorsed a candidate in the primary. Asked about the mayor-elect, Mr. Schlossberg said he remained focused on his own campaign.
“If Zohran Mamdani and I have anything in common, it’s that we are both trying to be authentic versions of ourselves and meet people where they are and communicate with people in New York City and be present and show up for people,” he said. “The only race I know how to run is my own.”
Mr. Schlossberg graduated from Yale and has master’s and law degrees from Harvard. But he has little professional experience, having worked briefly at the State Department and dabbled in political journalism during the 2024 election as a correspondent for Vogue.com.
He cast that as a strength. “I also bring two years now of experience in a toxic and polluted media environment where, unlike a lot of people, I know how to breathe that air,” he said. “I think that this district needs somebody who knows how to fight back effectively in this new political era that we’re living in.”
New York’s 12th District, which stretches the width of Manhattan and runs from Union Square to the top of Central Park, is one of the city’s oldest and wealthiest — especially after the most recent redistricting, when it was expanded to include the Upper East Side, once known as the Silk Stocking District. In the mayor’s race, Mr. Mamdani fell short to former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo in broad swaths of the district.
Mr. Schlossberg, who grew up in the district, had hinted for months at a possible run for the seat, which will be contested in June 2026. In the interim, others have stepped forward, including many with longer political résumés.
Micah Lasher, 43, a state assemblyman and Nadler protégé from the West Side; Alex Bores, 35, a state assemblyman from the East Side; and Jami Floyd, 51, a veteran journalist and lawyer, have announced their campaigns for the seat. Erik Bottcher, 46, a West Side City Council member, has also made moves toward running, and Liam Elkind, a 26-year-old nonprofit founder, had announced his campaign before Mr. Nadler said he would retire.
Nicholas Fandos contributed reporting.
Maya King is a Times reporter covering New York politics.
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