Jack Schlossberg, a writer and political commentator who also happens to be the grandson of late president John F. Kennedy, announced Sunday that he has formed an exploratory committee for a potential congressional run.
In his first step toward a formal political career, Schlossberg, 32, said in a brief X post that he had formed the group, which will likely determine whether or not he could successfully run to replace New York Representative Jerry Nadler.
Nadler, a Democrat, represents New York City’s 12th district, which includes Midtown and Uptown Manhattan. He announced last week he would not seek re-election after more than three decades in Congress.
Schlossberg, a native New Yorker, gained national attention last year when he used his social media influence to advocate for former vice president Kamala Harris’s election campaign. He also became a political correspondent for Vogue during that time, and currently hosts a political commentary show on YouTube.
The 32-year-old, who was educated at Yale and Harvard, belongs to one of the country’s most famous political dynasties. His mother is Caroline Kennedy, a former ambassador and Democratic activist. She is the only surviving child of JFK.
His mother’s cousin is Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whom he has repeatedly criticized on social media for spreading health misinformation. Schlossberg has been trolling RFK Jr. online, launching unsubstantiated claims at him, such as accusing the Trump Cabinet secretary of being a “Russian spy.”
But the political “nepo baby” appears keen to enter the family business by making a formal bid to become an elected representative.
Typically, the first step in announcing a campaign is forming an exploratory committee, which allows potential candidates to raise money and hire staff without having to report activity to the Federal Election Commission.
Exploratory committees, also known as “testing the waters” committees, give candidates more time before making a formal campaign announcement.
Schlossberg is already well known in Democratic circles, thanks to his family’s famous name. But his exploratory committee announcement puts him in a crowded field of many potential Nadler successors.
New York Assembly member Micah Lasher, largely considered Nadler’s heir, has filed a formal campaign with the FEC.
Liam Elkind, a 26-year-old co-founder of Invisible Hands – a nonprofit dedicated to delivering food or medicine to those unable to acquire it themselves -- has also announced he would seek to replace Nadler.
Nadler himself has brushed off Schlossberg as an unserious candidate.
“There’s nothing particularly good or bad about a Kennedy holding my seat, but the Kennedy, unlike Schlossberg, should be somebody with a record of public service, a record of public accomplishment, and he doesn’t have one,” Nadler told CNN.
