Jack Schlossberg, the only grandson of the late President John F. Kennedy and Jackie Kennedy Onassis, announced Tuesday night that he is running for U.S. Congress.
The 32-year-old son of Caroline Kennedy and Edwin Schlossberg said he is running for the New York City seat long held by U.S. Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., who announced in September he would retire.
“I am running for Congress to represent my home, New York’s 12th Congressional District, where I was born and raised, where I took the bus to school every day from one side of the district to the other,” Schlossberg said in a video announcing his candidacy.
“This is the best part of the greatest city on Earth,” he said.
Schlossberg’s politics fall within the family tradition of loyalty to the Democratic Party. He has developed an eccentric social media personality in which he often criticizes President Donald Trump, Republicans in general, and his once-ousted first cousin, U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
Schlossberg has been an outspoken critic of Kennedy, a veteran anti-vaccine activist.
“He is exploiting Camelot, celebrity conspiracy theories and conflicts for personal gain and fame,” Schlossberg said of Kennedy in 2023, after the latter refused to endorse former President Joe Biden’s re-election bid.
Schlossberg completed undergraduate studies in history at Yale and earned a law degree and an MBA from Harvard. In July 2024 he joined Vogue as a political correspondent for that year’s presidential elections.
He indicated that his campaign will consist of fighting against Trump’s policies.
New York’s 12th Congressional District makes up the geographic heart of Manhattan, including all of Central Park and most of the island north of Greenwich Village and south of Harlem.
“We have the best hospitals and schools, restaurants and museums,” Schlossberg said in his statement Tuesday. “This is the financial and media capital of the world. This district must have a representative who can harness the creativity, energy and drive of this district and translate it into political power in Washington.”
