Jack Schlossberg is a 32-year-old New York lawyer. It is also a phenomenon on social networks. He has more than 1.5 million followers on TikTok, Instagram and X, where he posts irreverent videos with scathing criticism of US President Donald Trump. He dresses up, makes parodies and, with a fresh and casual style, gives his opinion on some of the issues that concern Americans most. But Schlossberg, above all, is known for being the heir to a line of politicians that represents the American aristocracy and the closest thing to royalty the country has. He is the only male grandchild of John Fitzgerald Kennedy and Jackeline Kennedy.
Last week he took a decisive step. He announced his leap into the political arena and filed to run in the Democratic primary to fill the congressional seat representing New York’s 12th district vacated by incumbent Jerrold Nadler, who is retiring after more than three decades in office.
“There is no place I would rather be than in the political arena, fighting for my city,” Schlossberg noted in an Instagram video in which he filed his candidacy. In previous posts on the social network he is seen imitating other voices, dancing, dressing up or skating while reciting Lord Byron.
Now he seeks to be nominated by the Democrats to participate in the mid-term elections to be held next year, where the 435 members of the House of Representatives and a third of the Senate will be renewed. A decisive election, because it could cut Trump’s wings if the Democrats achieve a majority in both houses of the legislative branch. “With control of Congress there is nothing we can’t do,” added the New York politician, who inherited the family elegance: he is almost six feet tall, has an angular face and thick black hair.
Schlossberg is a staunch opponent of Trump. In a long interview with The New York Times, published the same day he announced his candidacy, he assured that the Democratic Party needs more voices to denounce the Republican president’s alleged abuses of power. “We deserve better, and we can get it, and it will all begin with the Democratic Party regaining control of the House of Representatives,” he notes in his publication on the social network.
In his speech he revealed that he is embarking on the political race to transform Congress into the first wall against Trump’s political excesses. And he insisted that without legislative oversight, the country is “defenseless” against Republicans’ threats to run for a third term, despite doing so prohibited by the 22nd Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
Jack Schlossberg is actually called John Bouvier Kennedy Schlossberg. He calls himself Jack like his grandfather, it was the nickname with which he was affectionately called in the family and with which he went down in history.
A direct descendant of the lineage known as Camelot in the United States, he is the son of Caroline Kennedy, the only living daughter of John F. Kennedy and Jacqueline Lee Bouvier, his grandmother’s maiden name; and the prestigious artist and designer Edwin Arthur Schlossberg. His mother is a writer, lawyer and diplomat. She was ambassador of Japan during Barack Obama’s government; and in Australia, under Joe Biden’s mandate. He has two older sisters, Rose and Tatiana.
His ancestry makes him privileged. He grew up on the Upper East Side, New York’s most elite neighborhood. He spent summers at summer homes on Martha’s Vineyard and Cape Cod, where older families in the United States vacation. He attended the best colleges and universities. He studied History at Yale and earned a Juris Doctorate from Harvard, where he also earned a double degree in Law and Business Administration. He passed the Bar entrance exam in 2023 with a score that placed him among the top 1% of candidates.
But he is not ashamed of his advantageous situation and emphasizes his progressive aspiration. He was one of the first to support Zohran Mamdani, the socialist who became mayor of New York two weeks ago, with a campaign based on the cost of living, fresh and modern, with a lot of presence on social networks. “I am sincerely worried about my country because my family fought and died to make a better country. For me everything is politics. That’s how I see the world,” he said a couple of months ago in an interview with EL PAÍS.
Last Wednesday he announced his decision through a video posted on Instagram. He appears in shirtsleeves at a New York rowing club, surrounded by boats and canoes. Rowing is one of his favorite sports. “250 years after the founding of the United States, our country is at a turning point,” he says as he heads to the dock at the foot of the Hudson River.
“It’s a crisis at every level. A cost-of-living crisis driven by the housing reform bill. Historic cuts to the social programs that working families depend on: health care, education and child care. It’s a corruption crisis. The president has made nearly $1 billion this year. He’s benefiting and hurting some and others in the Oval Office. It’s cronyism, not capitalism. It’s a constitutional crisis with a dangerous man at the head of the three branches of government. “It’s stripping citizens of their civil rights. and silencing them. their critics. The worst thing is that it doesn’t have to be this way,” he said with that familiar magnetism, formed from his first steps in theater and comedy during his university years.
Schlossberg prides himself on knowing how to orient himself in social networks, a habitat that he considers unknown to the Democratic Party. And he encourages his training to take advantage of this opportunity. Use young, direct and captivating language. He does not hesitate to insult Trump or insult his uncle Robert F. Kennedy, a Republican health secretary and anti-vaccine supporter of conspiracy theories. In some videos he appears with a blonde wig imitating Melania Trump or talking about Jesus Christ. His recordings were inflammatory and contained scurrilous criticism of Republicans.
But it won’t be easy. First he will have to get through the primaries of his party, which already has a full list of rivals. Among them stands out Micah Lasher, member of the New York State Assembly and protégé of Jerrold Nadler, who is leaving the vacant seat for which Alex Bores, a state representative from New York, will also run; Jami Floyd, journalist and lawyer, and Alan Pardee, former financial executive. New York City Councilman Erik Bottcher from the West Side is also expected to run.
The Democrats have eight months left to choose their candidate. It will be necessary to see if the halo of elected Stop making a career in politics.
