Pelosi to endorse Jack Schlossberg, again backing a Kennedy for Congress

WASHINGTON – Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is planning to endorse Jack Schlossberg, an online political commentator and the grandson of John F. Kennedy, in his run for a hotly contested House seat in New York City, making a rare foray into a crowded Democratic primary.

Schlossberg, who is also the cousin of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., is one of many Democrats vying to be the party’s nominee in the race to represent New York’s 12th Congressional District. It is an affluent quasi-rectangle in the middle of Manhattan.

Pelosi, D-Calif., who is retiring from Congress next January, will be the most high-profile endorsement so far, for any candidate.

Schlossberg’s “candidacy will help Democrats win nationwide,” Pelosi said in a statement viewed by The New York Times.

In a brief interview, Schlossberg called Pelosi “a hero” of his and described her coming endorsement as “a shot of adrenaline – a lot like what I felt when she ripped up the president’s State of the Union last term.”

Schlossberg, 33, announced in November that he was entering the race to succeed Rep. Jerry Nadler, who had said he would retire after 34 years in Congress. Nadler, the former chair of the House Judiciary Committee, led two impeachment efforts against President Donald Trump. His allies have indicated he is likely to endorse a longtime confidant, Micah Lasher.

Lasher, 44, is in his first term in the New York state Assembly and has spent much of his career in Democratic politics.

The initial lack of establishment support and political experience has made Schlossberg somewhat of an outsider despite his family’s dynasty in American politics. He has degrees from Yale and Harvard and briefly worked as a political reporter at Vogue. His mother, Caroline Kennedy, was ambassador to Japan in the Obama administration and ambassador to Australia in the Biden’s administration. But he is best known to most of his fans as a social media personality.

A primary victory in June would all but guarantee election, given the solidly Democratic 12th District. Other Democratic candidates vying for Nadler’s seat include Alex Bores, a state Assembly member; Jami Floyd, a journalist and commentator; and George Conway, the Republican-turned-Democrat attorney and former husband of Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.