Jack Schlossberg, Kennedy Scion and Social Media Provocateur, Enters Crowded NY-12 Primary

Key facts

• NY-12 is the smallest and most population-dense congressional district in the U.S., with a D+33 rating.
• Jack Schlossberg, 33, is the grandson of John F. Kennedy and son of Caroline Kennedy.
• Schlossberg graduated from Yale, worked at Suntory in Tokyo, served at the State Department, and earned a joint JD/MBA from Harvard.
• He gained notoriety for viral videos, including shirtless dancing and a tweet asking 'who is hotter, Usha Vance or Jackie Kennedy.'
• Schlossberg endorsed Zohran Mamdani for mayor two weeks before the primary, the only NY-12 candidate to do so.
• The primary field includes Micah Lasher, Alex Bores, George Conway, and Schlossberg.
• Incumbent Jerry Nadler retired abruptly in 2024 at age 78 after representing the district for decades.

A District Born of Chaos

The 12th Congressional District of New York should not exist. For decades, Manhattan was split into two districts: one anchored on the Upper West Side, the other on the Upper East Side. But a botched redistricting process, overseen by a court-appointed cartographer in Pittsburgh, merged the two into a single river-to-river seat stretching from 96th Street to 14th Street. The result was a political Frankenstein: the smallest and most population-dense congressional district in the country, and one of the wealthiest and oldest. In 2022, the forced merger pitted two septuagenarian incumbents against each other: Jerry Nadler, the liberal lion of the Upper West Side, and Carolyn Maloney, the East Side veteran. Their primary battle was vicious. Maloney called Nadler 'half dead'; Nadler allies painted her as a dupe on Iraq. Nadler won in a landslide, thanks in part to the district's lopsided Democratic concentration. 'Texas has oil, and the Upper West Side has Democrats,' Nadler protégé Scott Stringer likes to say. Then, in 2024, Nadler abruptly announced his retirement. A flood of speculation ensued: Chelsea Clinton, Andrew Cuomo, Cynthia Nixon, even Michael Cohen were mentioned. Maloney herself said she was considering a comeback. But the field that crystallized is younger, more diverse, and includes an unlikely candidate who is rewriting the rules of New York politics.

The Candidate Who Came From the Algorithm

Jack Schlossberg, 33, is the grandson of John F. Kennedy, son of Caroline Kennedy, and nephew of John F. Kennedy Jr. — a scion of America's fading royal family. Until recently, he was known to the public mostly from a series of baroque viral videos. In one, he is shirtless and dancing provocatively at the beach, shorts pulled below the tan line. In another, he dons a wig and pretends to be Melania Trump talking to Vladimir Putin. He once tweeted: 'who is hotter, Usha Vance or Jackie Kennedy' — his grandmother. He mused on X about Jesus' apparent inability to gain muscle: 'Most popular guy of all time — not jacked. Toned, but not big. So my question is — did Jesus want to put on muscle but couldn't? Or was he lean on purpose?' In person, Schlossberg is little like his online self. 'I spent the first 30 years of my life inside a library,' he says. He graduated from Collegiate, where classmates say he never talked about his pedigree. He went to Yale, then to a job in Tokyo with Suntory, the liquor company, and then to a posting at the State Department while his mother was ambassador to Japan. After that, he earned a joint business and law degree from Harvard. (His LinkedIn lists his current job as 'Director of the CIA' and his work experience as 'Special Assistant to Lauren Boebert' and a flight attendant with Pan Am; Harvard Law is noted, but he says his role was 'dermatologist.')

Method in the Madness

Schlossberg's social-media antics were, in his telling, a deliberate strategy to crack the algorithm. 'Clout is the coin of the digital realm,' he says. While other Kennedy family members hesitated to criticize Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s conspiratorial turn and eventual alliance with Donald Trump, Schlossberg tore into his cousin, whom he says he barely knows. In a series of Instagram videos, he assumed personas, including a 'Masshole' for whom RFK Jr. is despoiling the family name. 'Jack stood out as someone willing to stick his neck out,' says a senior Biden campaign official. 'Everyone else was concerned about protecting the Kennedy brand. It looked completely unhinged to me, but there was a method to the madness.' By the time Schlossberg showed up at the 2024 Democratic National Convention, where there were special-access passes for influencers, he was mobbed by fans. 'I had this experience where, although I grew up in a famous family, I myself wasn't recognizable or famous. People started recognizing me everywhere I went,' Schlossberg says. 'I couldn't go anywhere at the DNC without getting swarmed, and I realized that I get how to do this so that people respond to it.'

The Race to Be the Face of Manhattan

The battle for NY-12 is not just about who will be the next member of Congress but a contest among factions of the island's Democratic base: the old-money elite, the anti-Trump resisters, the tech-world crusaders, and the old-school party establishment. Nearly a dozen candidates are vying for the seat, but the primary has narrowed to four: Micah Lasher, a state assemblyman from the Upper West Side and Nadler's anointed successor; Alex Bores, an assemblyman from the Upper East Side whose calls for AI regulation have drawn millions in spending; George Conway, the onetime Republican lawyer turned #Resistance leader; and Schlossberg. 'It's New York-sized,' Schlossberg said when asked why this campaign is different. He was sitting in a diner near his Chelsea apartment, eating a late breakfast of bacon, which he finished before absentmindedly spooning up the grease with his forefinger and licking it. The district is D+33, meaning no Republican has a chance. 'It's as blue as it gets. But it is also a district that went for Cuomo,' says writer Molly Jong-Fast, who lives in the district. 'It's Democratic but not liberal. It's a voting base that is very engaged. You've got the MSNBC audience, a lot of Jewish voters, so it's a lot of elements that are important for the Democrats' struggle with themselves.'

A New Kind of Campaign

Schlossberg's campaign events have a distinct vibe. One Sunday morning in late March, he hosted a party at a Tenth Avenue pizzeria. Eighty people showed up — all new to any Schlossberg event — and another 150 were on the waiting list. A strong majority were women under 30. As Schlossberg made his way from table to table, they gazed at him dreamily. Among the attendees were a freelance choreographer, a graduate student, and a woman who worked at Trader Joe's after being laid off from a museum job. Many were new to New York and to politics, and many lived outside the district but were looking for something to get excited about. No one cared about Schlossberg's lack of experience — many were looking for jobs themselves — and all mentioned some connection (usually from a mother or grandmother) to the candidate's famous family. Schlossberg endorsed Zohran Mamdani two weeks before the mayoral primary, the only NY-12 candidate to do so (Lasher and Bores endorsed him after the primary). There's a Zohran-like vibe to his campaign events, minus the ideological fervor. The district is an ATM for Democrats — something Nadler never fully exploited — and is primed for a politician who can make use of the fact that all the major television and cable-news networks, the New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal are based there.

What Comes Next

The primary is expected to be fiercely competitive, with each candidate representing a distinct slice of Manhattan's Democratic coalition. Lasher has the establishment backing, Bores has a tech-focused platform and significant outside spending, Conway has national anti-Trump fundraising, and Schlossberg has name recognition and a viral following. The question is whether Schlossberg's social-media savvy and Kennedy brand can translate into votes in a district that is both wealthy and highly educated. Schlossberg's lack of political experience and his provocative online persona may be liabilities, but his campaign is betting that he can tap into a yearning for something new. 'I get how to do this so that people respond to it,' he says. The race will test whether the old rules of New York politics still apply — or whether a candidate who came from the algorithm can rewrite them.

The bottom line

• NY-12 is a safely Democratic, densely populated Manhattan district created by a chaotic redistricting process.
• Jack Schlossberg, 33, is leveraging his Kennedy name and social-media following in a crowded primary field.
• His online antics, including provocative videos and tweets, were a deliberate strategy to build clout.
• Schlossberg was the only NY-12 candidate to endorse Zohran Mamdani for mayor before the primary.
• The primary pits four candidates representing different Democratic factions: establishment, tech, anti-Trump resistance, and celebrity populism.
• The outcome will signal whether viral fame can translate into electoral success in a sophisticated urban district.