Veteran New York congressman Jerry Nadler will retire from office, after 34 years in the House of Representatives, saying he wants to make room for the next generation of Democrats.
In an interview with The New York Times published on Monday, the 78-year-old Brooklynite said he was reluctant at first to quit the fight against President Donald Trump, but was ultimately convinced he should step aside.
“Watching the Biden thing really said something about the necessity for generational change in the party, and I think I want to respect that,” he said.
"I’m not saying we should change over the entire party,” he said. “But I think a certain amount of change is very helpful, especially when we face the challenge of Trump and his incipient fascism."
New York Governor Kathy Hochul hailed him as "a champion, a fighter, and a trusted voice for New Yorkers", saying he had "never wavered in delivering for the people he so proudly represents."
Elected to Congress in 1992 after 16 years in the New York State Assembly, representing a succession of Manhattan districts that once included the World Trade Center, Nadler is both the longest-serving New Yorker and the longest-serving Jewish person in the U.S. House.
During Trump's first presidency he was among the most outspoken critics, and has previously worked to heal the wounds from 9/11, limit the president's surveillance powers, and codify federal recognition of same-sex marriage.
But today Nadler's party is embroiled in a bitter generational war, with some younger Democrats alleging that its current elite of retirement-age stalwarts paved the way for Trump's return — and are now failing to fight back.
The number of over-70s in Congress has increased to unprecedented levels, with 76 in the House and 33 in the Senate as of January 2025. Democrats had nearly twice as many as Republicans.
Longtime Democratic legislators in California, Illinois, Georgia, Maryland, Massachusetts and beyond are now facing primary challenges from younger candidates attempting to follow in the footsteps of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's breakthrough election 2019.
In Illinois, TikTok star and progressive researcher Kat Abughazaleh, 26, is running to replace 81-year-old Jan Schakowsky, arguing that the party is bereft of "real leadership" and needs a "makeover".
In Connecticut, 46-year-old Luke Bronin is challenging 77-year-old John Larson, claiming that Trump's election must be "awake-up call for the Democratic Party... to do things differently".
In New York, Nadler himself is facing competition from 26-year-old Liam Elkind, who said he was "respectfully asking" the older politician to retire due to his lack of a "plan" to stop Trump.
Senior Democrats are divided over whether to endorse New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, despite his comfortable win in the party primary this June.
In his NYT interview, Nadler said he would not seek reelection in next year's midterm elections, suggesting that a younger replacement "can maybe do better, can maybe help us more."
Discussing the outlook for blocking Trump's "reign of terror", he said: "I am not terribly optimistic. I wish I could be. But this is the most severe threat we’ve had to our system of government since the Civil War, and unfortunately Abraham Lincoln is not the president."
He also admitted that Israel's ruthless and allegedly genocidal conduct in Gaza had turned much of the party and its voting base against the former U.S. ally.
“I don’t know what to say at this point. I can’t defend what Israel is doing," adding that Israel is "without question" committing war crimes.
