{"id":86588,"date":"2026-01-01T15:18:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-01T15:18:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/86588\/"},"modified":"2026-01-01T15:18:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-01T15:18:07","slug":"a-new-york-congressional-primary-could-show-where-democrats-are-heading","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/86588\/","title":{"rendered":"A New York Congressional Primary Could Show Where Democrats Are Heading"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tThe Democratic party has had a vise-like grip on New York\u2019s 12th Congressional District \u2014 which spans the width of Manhattan from the top of Central Park to Union Square \u2014\u00a0for more than a century. Over his own three decade career representing the district in Congress, retiring Rep. Jerry Nadler<\/a> (D-NY) was never elected with anything less than 75 percent of the vote. Come November, the district is almost certain to remain in the party\u2019s control \u2014\u00a0but who clinches it could say quite a lot about the direction the party is heading in 2026 and beyond.<\/p>\n

\n\tNadler, 78, announced his retirement in September roughly one month after a 26-year-old constituent declared his intention to primary the congressman. Liam Elkind<\/a>, a Rhodes scholar and co-founder of the nonprofit Invisible Hands, portrayed Nadler as an emblem of an aging, enfeebled Democratic party, full of geriatrics<\/a> who stubbornly refuse to give up power before it\u2019s too late. \u201cThe Democratic Party is DYING. We\u2019re losing votes. Losing elections. Losing our democracy,\u201d he said in his campaign launch video.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tNadler acknowledged the party\u2019s age issue when he announced his decision not to seek reelection, telling the New York Times<\/a>, \u201cWatching the Biden thing really said something about the necessity for generational change in the party, and I think I want to respect that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tA crush of political hopefuls are now queuing up for the chace to fill Nadler\u2019s seat: With half a year to go before the June primary, the field is crowded with activists, advocates, influencers, and local pols. The race will offer insight into a host of questions still hanging in the air after Democrats\u2019 humiliating defeat in 2024. How big is voters\u2019 appetite for change? How much influence will tech billionaire cash exert on the electorate? Does the Kennedy name still carry any sway in Democratic politics? How much is #resistance celebrity worth? And how instructive will Zohran Mamdani<\/a>\u2019s recent victory be in this part of the city, where the incoming mayor\u2019s support was softer?<\/p>\n

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\n\tOne thing is clear: A current of frustration and disappointment with the Democratic Party runs through many of the candidates\u2019 campaign launch videos. Democrats have \u201clost the plot,\u201d Jami Floyd<\/a>, a former WNYC host who worked in the Clinton White House, says in hers. Lawyer and victims rights advocate Laura Dunn<\/a> declares: \u201cWe deserve better than Democratic leaders who\u2019ve been profiting off their position while you and I struggle to make ends meet\u2026 better than wishy-washy centrists who are allowing the roll back of our rights and liberties.\u201d Cameron Kasky<\/a>, a survivor of the school shooting in Parkland, Florida says, \u201cWe need leaders who aren\u2019t going to coddle their billionaire donors, who won\u2019t support a genocide, and who aren\u2019t going to settle for flaccid incrementalism.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe second person to declare his intention to run for the seat after Elkind was Micah Lasher<\/a>, 44, who currently represents part of the district in the New York State Assembly. A former aide to Nadler, Lasher is considered as the heavy favorite to nab the outgoing congressman\u2019s endorsement and, if he gets it, the Democratic nomination. An operator active in New York politics since his teenage years, Lasher has already racked up the official backing of a profusion of local officials<\/a> \u2014 and at least one former rival: Elkind threw his support behind the assemblymember when he bowed out of the race in December.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tLasher, though, will have a lot of competition, starting with Alex Bores<\/a>, 35, his colleague in the state assembly, a former software engineer who has built a name for himself as a champion willing to stand up to an increasingly powerful artificial intelligence industry. Bores was the co-author of the Responsible AI Safety and Education (RAISE) Act, a landmark piece of legislation that will place new guardrails on large AI firms. For his temerity, a pro-AI PAC with $100 million at its disposal has declared its intention to spend lavishly against Bores<\/a> \u2014 a campaign that it has already begun<\/a>. If Bores pulls out a win in the primary, it will send a powerful message to national Democrats who have been reluctant<\/a> to take a strong stance regulating the industry.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\n\tLasher and Bores \u2014 who both currently represent segments of the district in the state assembly \u2014 are the established politicians in the race. (A third local politician who was vying for Nadler\u2019s seat, City Councilman Erik Bottcher, dropped out of the race in late December, opting to seek a state senate seat instead.)\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tBut voters eager for fresh blood will have no shortage of newcomers to choose from, including two social media stars minted in the Trump era: Jack Schlossberg<\/a>, the 32-year-old grandson of John F. Kennedy who gained a following for his offbeat Instagram<\/a> presence (which often skewers his cousin, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.) and George Conway<\/a>, 62, the former Republican once married to Trump\u2019s 2016 campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tA lawyer who worked on the Clinton impeachment before he became an outspoken Trump critic, Conway\u2019s candidacy will test whether voters in this historically liberal district are willing cast their lots in with an anti-Trump crusader who still self-describes as a conservative. (\u201cI want to conserve our democracy, I want to conserve our way of life, I want to conserve the rule of law,\u201d Conway said<\/a> in a recent interview. \u201cThese people who follow the orange Jesus are not conservatives \u2014 they\u2019re nihilists.\u201d)<\/p>\n

\n\tA trio of well-known advocates have also thrown their hats in the ring: Kasky, Dunn, and Mathew Shurka<\/a>. Shurka, 37, is a gay man who spent years in conversion therapy as a teenager before going on to become an outspoken champion of laws banning the practice. Kasky, 25, co-founded the gun violence prevention group March for Our Lives after his classmates were gunned down by a former student in Parkland. He is running on pledges to pass Medicare for All and end American funding for Israel\u2019s war on Gaza. \u201dThe fight of my life is the fight against American manufactured violence everywhere,\u201d Kasky says. \u201cI 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\u2019s the same thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tA survivor of sexual assault as a college student, Dunn, 40, became a lawyer with practice centered on Title IX claims \u2014 sex-based discrimination on college campuses \u2014\u00a0before, she says, Trump made it functionally impossible for victims to pursue such claims in his first term. Dunn was part of a group of advocates who worked to rewrite Title IX regulations during the Biden administration, but Biden delayed implementing them until it was too late. \u201cNow there\u2019s legal battles around it, but I\u2019m skeptical that we will revive them,\u201d Dunn says. \u201cI am very upset by the Democratic Party playing with sexual assault as a political football.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\n\tRounding out the field is Alan Pardee<\/a>, 58, a former managing director at Merill Lynch.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tWith three months to go before the April 2 filing deadline, the race is still wide open and there is still time for even more entrants, with their own visions for and grievances against the Democratic Party to step forward.<\/p>\n