John F. Kennedy’s Grandson Jack Schlossberg Launches Congressional Campaign

Jack Schloss­berg, the grand­son of Pres­i­dent John F. Kennedy and a promi­nent Demo­c­ra­t­ic influ­encer, is offi­cial­ly run­ning for Con­gress. Accord­ing to a New York Times report pub­lished on Nov. 11, Schloss­berg has announced his cam­paign to replace retir­ing New York Rep. Jer­ry Nadler.

If elect­ed, Schloss­berg — the only son of Car­o­line Kennedy — would rep­re­sent parts of New York City, suc­ceed­ing Nadler, the for­mer chair­man of the House Judi­cia­ry Com­mit­tee and long­time rep­re­sen­ta­tive of the 12th con­gres­sion­al dis­trict.

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

The 32-year-old, who boasts near­ly 1.5 mil­lion fol­low­ers across Insta­gram and Tik­Tok, had hint­ed at his ambi­tions ear­li­er this year. On Sept. 2, he told the Times that his can­di­da­cy was “cer­tain­ly a pos­si­bil­i­ty.” The next day, he ran a poll on his Insta­gram Sto­ry ask­ing his 700,000 fol­low­ers, “Should I run for office?”

Schlossberg’s run marks the first time a Kennedy fam­i­ly mem­ber has sought a con­gres­sion­al seat since Joe Kennedy III left the House to chal­lenge Sen. Ed Markey in 2020 — a race Kennedy lost.

Schloss­berg has also made head­lines for dis­tanc­ing him­self from his cousin, Health and Human Ser­vices Sec­re­tary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a key ally of Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump. Call­ing RFK Jr. “a threat to pub­lic health and Amer­i­can sci­en­tif­ic lead­er­ship,” Schloss­berg has pub­licly urged him to resign over his pro­mo­tion of health dis­in­for­ma­tion.

Seen by Gen Z as a ris­ing star with­in the Demo­c­ra­t­ic Par­ty, Schloss­berg deliv­ered remarks at the 2024 Demo­c­ra­t­ic Nation­al Con­ven­tion in Chica­go. Known for his off­beat sense of humor, he raised eye­brows in April when he jok­ing­ly post­ed on X that he was “hav­ing a baby with Vice Pres­i­dent JD Vance’s wife, Usha Vance.”

Despite his fam­i­ly lega­cy, Schloss­berg is not expect­ed to receive Nadler’s endorse­ment. In a Sept. 4 appear­ance on CNN’s News Cen­tral with Kate Bold­u­an, Nadler dis­missed the idea of Schloss­berg suc­ceed­ing him.

“What do you think about a Kennedy hold­ing your seat?” Bold­u­an asked. Nadler replied, “There’s noth­ing par­tic­u­lar­ly good or bad about a Kennedy hold­ing my seat,” adding that “the Kennedy, unlike Schloss­berg, should be some­thing with a record of pub­lic ser­vice, a record of pub­lic accom­plish­ment, and he doesn’t have one.”

He con­tin­ued, “I don’t think he’s going to be a can­di­date in the end, and he cer­tain­ly is not going to be a major can­di­date.” Nadler, 78, has served in Con­gress since 1992.

For­mer first daugh­ter Chelsea Clin­ton had report­ed­ly con­sid­ered run­ning for Nadler’s seat but ulti­mate­ly declined. A spokesper­son denied the spec­u­la­tion on Sept. 3, say­ing she had no plans to enter polit­i­cal life.

Oth­er declared can­di­dates in the race include for­mer Nadler aide and New York State Assem­bly­man Mic­ah Lash­er, finan­cial exec­u­tive Alan Pardee, and com­mu­ni­ty orga­niz­er Liam Elkind.