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For over a century, the Democratic party has held a firm grip on New York’s 12th Congressional District, a swath of Manhattan stretching from the top of Central Park to Union Square. Retiring Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) consistently won reelection with at least 75 percent of the vote over his three-decade career. While the district is almost certain to remain in Democratic hands, the upcoming election could signal the party’s future direction beyond 2026.
Nadler, 78, announced his retirement in September, roughly a month after Liam Elkind, a 26-year-old constituent, launched a primary challenge. A Rhodes scholar and co-founder of the nonprofit Invisible Hands, Elkind positioned Nadler as representative of an aging Democratic party resistant to change. “The Democratic Party is DYING. We’re losing votes. Losing elections. Losing our democracy,” he declared in his campaign launch video.
Nadler acknowledged the party’s generational challenge when announcing his departure, telling the New York Times, “Watching the Biden thing really said something about the necessity for generational change in the party, and I think I want to respect that.”
A crowded field of candidates is now vying to fill Nadler’s seat. With six months until the June primary, activists, advocates, influencers, and local politicians are all competing for the nomination. The race offers insight into key questions following the Democratic party’s disappointing performance in 2024: How strong is the electorate’s desire for change? To what extent will wealthy donors influence the outcome? Does the Kennedy name still resonate with Democratic voters? How valuable is notoriety gained from political activism? And how significant will Zohran Mamdani’s recent victory be in this part of the city, where support for the incoming mayor was less robust?
A common thread running through many candidates’ campaign launches is a sense of frustration with the Democratic Party. “Democrats have ‘lost the plot,’” says Jami Floyd, a former WNYC host who worked in the Clinton White House, in her campaign video. Laura Dunn, a lawyer and victims’ rights advocate, declares: “We deserve better than Democratic leaders who’ve been profiting off their position while you and I struggle to make ends meet… better than wishy-washy centrists who are allowing the roll back of our rights and liberties.” Cameron Kasky, a survivor of the school shooting in Parkland, Florida, states, “We need leaders who aren’t going to coddle their billionaire donors, who won’t support a genocide, and who aren’t going to settle for flaccid incrementalism.”
Micah Lasher, 44, who currently represents part of the district in the New York State Assembly, was the second candidate to enter the race after Elkind. A former aide to Nadler, Lasher is widely considered the frontrunner to secure the outgoing congressman’s endorsement—and, with it, the Democratic nomination. Active in New York politics since his teenage years, Lasher has already garnered endorsements from a number of local officials, and even received support from a former rival: Elkind endorsed Lasher after withdrawing from the race in December.
Lasher, however, faces significant competition, including Alex Bores, 35, also a member of the state assembly. A former software engineer, Bores has championed regulations for the rapidly evolving artificial intelligence industry, co-authoring the Responsible AI Safety and Education (RAISE) Act. A pro-AI political action committee, with $100 million at its disposal, has vowed to spend heavily against Bores—a campaign that has already begun. A victory for Bores would send a strong message to national Democrats who have been hesitant to regulate the industry.
Lasher and Bores, both currently representing parts of the district in the state assembly, are the established political figures in the race. (City Councilman Erik Bottcher, another local politician who initially sought Nadler’s seat, dropped out in late December to pursue a state senate seat.)
The field also includes several newcomers, including Jack Schlossberg, 32, the grandson of John F. Kennedy, who gained a following for his satirical Instagram presence (often poking fun at his cousin, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.), and George Conway, 62, a former Republican attorney and outspoken critic of Donald Trump, who was previously married to Trump’s 2016 campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway.
Conway’s candidacy will test whether voters in this traditionally liberal district will support an anti-Trump advocate who still identifies as a conservative. (“I want to conserve our democracy, I want to conserve our way of life, I want to conserve the rule of law,” Conway said in a recent interview. “These people who follow the orange Jesus are not conservatives — they’re nihilists.”)
Rounding out the field are well-known advocates Mathew Shurka, Cameron Kasky, and Laura Dunn. Shurka, 37, is a gay man who underwent conversion therapy as a teenager and now advocates for laws banning the practice. Kasky, 25, co-founded March for Our Lives after the shooting at his high school in Parkland, Florida, and is running on a platform that includes Medicare for All and ending U.S. funding for Israel’s military actions in Gaza. ”The fight of my life is the fight against American manufactured violence everywhere,” Kasky says. “I do not understand how people can be horrified by the shootings in our high schools, but think that these children and adults being slaughtered in Gaza is any different. It’s the same thing.” Dunn, 40, a lawyer specializing in Title IX cases, says the Trump administration made it nearly impossible for victims of sexual assault to pursue claims, and she is frustrated by the Democratic Party’s handling of the issue.
Alan Pardee, 58, a former managing director at Merrill Lynch, is also seeking the nomination.
With the April 2 filing deadline still three months away, the race remains open, and more candidates with their own visions for—and grievances against—the Democratic Party may yet emerge.
