JFK’s Jewish grandson set to announce bid for Congress

Jack Schlossberg, grandson of the 35th US president, John F. Kennedy, plans to run for Congress next year, The New York Times reported on Tuesday, continuing the legacy of one of America’s most storied and tragedy-stricken political families.

Schlossberg, 32, son of JFK’s daughter former diplomat Caroline Kennedy and the Jewish designer-artist Edwin Schlossberg, shared the news of his first bid for public office in an email to supporters on Tuesday night, the Times said.

He will be seeking the Democratic Party nomination for the Manhattan seat in the US House of Representatives, which is being vacated by retiring New York Democrat Jerrold Nadler, according to the newspaper.

A political commentator and writer whose work has been published in such news outlets as The Washington Post, Politico and Time magazine, and who told Hey Alma last year that he identifies as culturally Jewish, Schlossberg joins a crowded field of contenders already vying for the 12th congressional district seat.

Nadler, 78, announced in September that he was retiring next year after more than 30 years in the House, acknowledging a widespread clamor within the party to make way for a younger generation of leaders.

Schlossberg’s decision comes as Democrats are hoping to regain control of the House in the 2026 midterm elections and thus a measure of legislative clout they currently lack in opposing the agenda of Republican US President Donald Trump.

“There is nothing our party can’t do to address costs of living, corruption and the constitutional crisis that we’re in,” Schlossberg was quoted as saying in an interview with the Times. “But without the control of Congress, there’s almost nothing that we can do.”

The only grandson of JFK, who was assassinated in 1963, Schlossberg grabbed a moment in the Democratic spotlight on the second night of the 2024 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, where he gave an in-person speech endorsing then-vice president Kamala Harris in her bid for president.

Some of Schlossberg’s critiques as a commentator have targeted his cousin Robert F. Kennedy Jr, whom Trump appointed secretary of health and human services despite his vaccine skepticism and propagation of health policies at odds with science and the medical mainstream.

Kennedy’s father, Robert F. Kennedy, who served as US attorney general under JFK before he was elected to a US Senate seat in New York, was himself assassinated in 1968 just after winning the Democratic presidential primary in California.

Schlossberg’s entry into congressional politics follows the meteoric rise of another younger New York millennial, Zohran Mamdani, 34, the state assemblyman who was elected last week as mayor of New York City.

Like Mamdani, Schlossberg is known for his social media savvy, with more than 830,000 followers on TikTok, according to the Times.

“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,” Schlossberg told the Times.