{"id":39068,"date":"2025-11-14T03:45:14","date_gmt":"2025-11-14T03:45:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/39068\/"},"modified":"2025-11-14T03:45:14","modified_gmt":"2025-11-14T03:45:14","slug":"gay-nyc-city-council-member-erik-bottcher-joins-jack-schlossberg-in-packed-race-for-jerry-nadlers-house-seat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/39068\/","title":{"rendered":"Gay NYC city council member Erik Bottcher joins Jack Schlossberg in packed race for Jerry Nadler\u2019s House seat"},"content":{"rendered":"

New York City<\/a> Council Member Erik Bottcher<\/a> launched his campaign Thursday for New York\u2019s 12th Congressional District, entering the 2026 Democratic<\/a> primary with an argument rooted in both lived experience and political<\/a> urgency.<\/p>\n

Keep up with the latest in LGBTQ<\/a>+ news and politics. Sign up for The Advocate\u2019s email newsletter.<\/a><\/p>\n

Bottcher, 46, is the only out gay candidate in the race. His campaign said he raised nearly $700,000 in the first 24 hours after opening an exploratory account, a powerful early fundraising signal.<\/p>\n

Bottcher represents Manhattan\u2019s District 3, which includes Chelsea, Hell\u2019s Kitchen, Times Square, Flatiron, and the Garment District, and has long framed his politics through the lens of his own survival.<\/p>\n

Related: Out NYC Councilman Erik Bottcher files to run for Rep. Jerry Nadler’s seat, raises nearly $700k in one day<\/a><\/p>\n

His announcement recounts growing up in a small Adirondack town, attempting suicide multiple times as a closeted teen, and spending a month in a mental health hospital. He says New York City \u201csaved my life.\u201d<\/p>\n

His launch draws heavily on themes he shared in an interview with The Advocate last month. \u201cThis congressional district has a proud tradition of representatives who\u2019ve fought for LGBTQ+ rights, from Bella Abzug to Jerry Nadler,\u201d he said. \u201cBut we\u2019ve never actually had one of our own at the table. Our community is under attack in terrifying ways, and it\u2019s time to take the gloves off.\u201d He added that the moment demands clarity: \u201cI love my country, and right now it\u2019s being torn apart by Donald Trump<\/a> and his neo-fascist forces.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bottcher pledged to confront what he calls GOP<\/a> \u201ccorruption, cruelty and chaos\u201d and to hold Democrats accountable when they \u201cfall short of the moment.\u201d His team cites his re-election last year, with 90 percent of the vote, as evidence of the trust he has earned among his constituents.<\/p>\n

With the seat open following the retirement of U.S. Rep. Jerry Nadler, Bottcher is entering an increasingly crowded Democratic field. Other candidates now in the mix include state Assembly Member Micah Lasher \u2014 widely viewed as Nadler\u2019s prot\u00e9g\u00e9 \u2014 state Assembly Member Alex Bores, nonprofit founder Liam Elkind, journalist and attorney Jami Floyd, and 32-year-old Jack Schlossberg, grandson of President John F. Kennedy, whose campaign launch on Wednesday added significant national attention.<\/p>\n

On MSNBC<\/a> Thursday, Bottcher argued that the appetite for generational change is real. \u201cPeople are hungry for new leadership,\u201d he told anchor Chris Jansing. He said Democrats must break with old habits: \u201cWe have got a bully in the White House who has been pushing us around, and we have been letting him push us around.\u201d His campaign, he said, would be defined by urgency. \u201cThis is an emergency, and we need to start treating it like the emergency that it is.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bottcher said in a press release that he plans to campaign \u201ceverywhere, every day\u201d across the East and West Sides.<\/p>\n

Editor’s note: This story has been updated with additional reporting.<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on Advocate: Gay NYC city council member Erik Bottcher joins Jack Schlossberg in packed race\u00a0for Jerry Nadler\u2019s House seat<\/a><\/p>\n

RELATED<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New York City Council Member Erik Bottcher launched his campaign Thursday for New York\u2019s 12th Congressional District, entering…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":39069,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[4921,22775,22776,21558,4097,9,24,56,63,65,64],"class_list":{"0":"post-39068","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-chelsea","9":"tag-erik-bottcher","10":"tag-garment-district","11":"tag-jack-schlossberg","12":"tag-jerry-nadler","13":"tag-new-york","14":"tag-new-york-city","15":"tag-ny","16":"tag-nyc","17":"tag-nyc-headlines","18":"tag-nyc-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39068","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39068"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39068\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39069"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39068"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39068"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39068"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}