Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi is planning to endorse Jack Schlossberg, an online political commentator and the grandson of John F. Kennedy, in his run for a hotly contested House seat in New York City, making a rare foray into a crowded Democratic primary, according to three people familiar with her plans.
Mr. Schlossberg, who is also the cousin of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., is one of many Democrats vying to be the party’s nominee in the race to represent New York’s 12th Congressional District. It is an affluent quasi-rectangle in the middle of Manhattan that is home to Times Square, Central Park, the United Nations and the Empire State Building.
Ms. Pelosi, a California Democrat who is retiring from Congress next January, will be the most high-profile endorsement so far, for any candidate.
Mr. Schlossberg’s “candidacy will help Democrats win nationwide,” Ms. Pelosi said in a statement viewed by The New York Times.
“This is a consequential moment for the country — faith in our politics is fractured and trust in government is tenuous,” said the former speaker, who plans to officially endorse Mr. Schlossberg on Sunday. “This moment calls for leaders who understand the stakes and how to deliver for the people they serve.”
The people who spoke about the endorsement did so on condition of anonymity because it is not yet public.
Mr. Schlossberg called Ms. Pelosi “a hero” of his in a brief interview. He described her endorsement as “a shot of adrenaline, a lot like what I felt when she ripped up the president’s State of the Union last term.”
Mr. Schlossberg, 33, announced in November that he was entering the race to succeed Representative Jerry Nadler, who had said he would retire after 34 years in Congress. Mr. Nadler, the former chairman of the House Judiciary Committee who led two impeachment efforts against President Trump, endorsed a longtime confidant, Micah Lasher, in September.
Mr. Lasher, 44, is in his first term in the state assembly and has spent much of his career in Democratic politics.
When asked in September about the possibility of Mr. Schlossberg entering the race, Mr. Nadler dismissed it. He said his successor should have “a record of public service, a record of public accomplishment,” and that Mr. Schlossberg “doesn’t have one.”
The initial lack of establishment support and political experience has made Mr. Schlossberg somewhat of an outsider despite his family’s dynasty in American politics. He grew up in the district, has degrees from Yale and Harvard and briefly worked as a political reporter at Vogue. His mother, Caroline Kennedy, was ambassador to Japan in President Barack Obama’s administration and ambassador to Australia in President Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s administration. Mr. Schlossberg spoke in 2024 at the Democratic National Convention.
But he is best known to most of his fans as a social media personality whose videos have tackled topics including national politics, mental health and his adventures paddle boarding on the Hudson. Some posts are humorous and whimsical, while others have, at times, ventured into the provocative and crass.
Mr. Schlossberg has mused about having a child with Usha Vance, viciously criticized conservative commentators and has not held back against his cousin, lambasting the health secretary about his vaccine skepticism, fealty to Mr. Trump and even imitating his raspy voice. His recent posts on X have made fun of Stephen Miller, a top adviser to the president, about the shape of his head.
Ms. Pelosi, herself a daughter of a political dynasty, has longstanding ties to the Kennedy family. Her father Thomas D’Alesandro Jr., who served in Congress before becoming the mayor of Baltimore, chaired John F. Kennedy’s presidential campaign in Maryland. And while Ms. Pelosi, a prodigious fund-raiser and shrewd campaign strategist, has typically stayed out of Democratic primaries, she has made an exception before for a Kennedy.
In 2020, she endorsed Joseph P. Kennedy III in the Democratic primary against Senator Edward J. Markey of Massachusetts. (Mr. Kennedy lost that race, dealing his family its first loss ever in the state.)
For Mr. Schlossberg, a primary victory in June would all but guarantee election -given the solidly Democratic 12th District. It would make him the second millennial to shoot up the ranks of New York politics since Mr. Trump’s return to the White House, following Mayor Zohran K. Mamdani, whose outsider campaign fueled by young progressive voters ended the Cuomo dynasty in the Empire State. Other Democratic candidates vying for Mr. Nadler’s seat include Alex Bores, a state assembly member from the Upper East Side; Jami Floyd, a broadcast journalist and national political commentator; and George Conway, the Republican-turned-Democrat attorney and ex-husband of Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway.
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