A Kennedy returns to the ballot

Jack Schlossberg, the grandson of former President John F. Kennedy, is stepping off social media and into the political arena.

The 32-year-old announced this week that he’s running for Congress in New York’s 12th District—the seat being vacated by longtime Democratic Rep. Jerry Nadler—joining what’s already shaping up to be a crowded and closely watched primary.

Schlossberg’s entry into the race feels both inevitable and audacious. A descendant of America’s most storied political dynasty, he’s the nepo baby of nepo babies—his last name alone opens doors few others could dream of.

But his bid also marks an attempt to extend his family’s legacy in electoral politics into a radically different era, one defined less by polished stump speeches and more by TikTok virality.

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Until now, Schlossberg’s been best known as a social media provocateur with a taste for high-profile political commentary. He’s used his online platforms to spar with conservatives, denounce Trump-era policies, and even wade into family drama—most notably with his cousin, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the vaccine-skeptical health secretary serving under President Donald Trump.

He announced his campaign in an email to supporters late Tuesday, followed by a video posted online the next morning. In interviews with The New York Times and MSNBC, Schlossberg framed his run as a generational call to arms against Trump’s overreach.

“There is nothing our party can’t do to address costs of living, corruption, and the constitutional crisis that we’re in,” he told the Times. “But without the control of Congress, there’s almost nothing that we can do.”

“It’s certainly time for a new generation of Americans to step up and ask what they can do for their country,” he added on MSNBC, riffing on his grandfather’s most famous line. “It shouldn’t just be about someone’s age. It should be about candidates—of any age—who understand policy and how to compete in this toxic political environment.”

Like many Democrats, Schlossberg argues that Trump’s policies have fueled corruption, economic strain, and constitutional crises. But unlike most of his would-be colleagues, he’s banking on his digital fluency as a selling point.

“One thing we can do is elect candidates who know how to communicate and cut back in this toxic political environment,” he told MSNBC. “New media is completely polluted, and the air is dirty. I figured out a way to breathe in that environment, and we need to elect candidates who understand how to do that.”

That digital savvy puts him in the same lane as another rising New York Democrat: newly elected Mayor Zohran Mamdani, a democratic socialist who energized young progressives across the city. 

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Both men are millennials, fluent in the rhythms of social media, and eager to inject new energy into a party still struggling to pass the torch. But where Mamdani built his brand as an insurgent outsider, Schlossberg’s privilege is impossible to ignore.

His mother is Caroline Kennedy, the former ambassador to Australia, and the latest in a long line of Kennedys to pursue public office. Since 1947, there have been only two calendar years in which a Kennedy didn’t hold a federal post, elected or appointed, according to The Washington Post.

Schlossberg is leaning into the family legacy while also trying to rebrand it for a more chaotic age.

“If Zohran Mamdani and I have anything in common, it’s that we are both trying to be authentic versions of ourselves,” he told the Times. “The only race I know how to run is my own.”

Raised on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, Schlossberg is running in one of the city’s most powerful and moneyed districts—stretching from Union Square to the top of Central Park. 

Nadler’s retirement after three decades in office left a vacuum that’s drawn a flurry of ambitious Democrats, including Assemblymembers Micah Lasher and Alex Bores, City Council member Erik Bottcher, nonprofit founder Liam Elkind, and veteran journalist Jami Floyd.

For now, Schlossberg’s résumé is thin. He held a short-term role at the State Department and briefly worked as a political correspondent for Vogue.com during the 2024 election. But he casts that as an advantage in a changing media and political ecosystem.

“I 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 told the Times.

Whether voters see him as a fresh voice or another Kennedy trading on nostalgia remains to be seen. Democrats are desperate for new leadership, and Schlossberg—telegenic, well-connected, and untested—might just be the kind of figure who forces the party to confront what “new” actually means.

Another nepo baby running for Congress could easily backfire. Or it could be exactly what the Democratic Party, adrift between generations, has been waiting for.

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