Parkland survivor jumps into crowded NYC House race as Gen Z progressives challenge party elders

John F. Kennedy’s grandson Jack Schlossberg picked up plenty of national attention when he launched a congressional campaign to replace retiring Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., but the content creator is far from the only young, progressive candidate vying to represent the Big Apple in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Democratic activist Cameron Kasky, 25, launched a campaign on Tuesday for New York’s 12th Congressional District, joining an already crowded field of Democratic primary contenders.

Kasky is jumping into the race as progressives across the U.S., especially in New York City, seek to seize Democrats’ success in the 2025 races, including gubernatorial wins in New Jersey and Virginia and 34-year-old socialist Zohran Mamdani taking the helm of the largest city in America.

“New Yorkers are always on the move, reaching new heights, and rushing towards the future, but today’s leaders just can’t keep up,” Kasky said in his announcement video, while walking through a busy New York City between jump cuts of the Gen-Z activist riding public transportation. 

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The video is reminiscent in tone and style to Mamdani’s own jumpy and cinematic-forward videos, with Kasky’s political campaign debut scripted over a jazzy musical ensemble.

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“I’m Cameron Kasky, and I’m running for Congress because it feels like our party has no future, so we need to invest in a new generation of leaders to take on the fight.

Kasky said “he never dreamed” of getting into politics, but after surviving a mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, in 2018, and later leading the March For Our Lives, a student-led organization supporting gun control legislation, he said he learned “the hard way” that it happened because of the “American system,” he now seeks to dismantle.

His key campaign promises are Medicare for All, calling for an end to “funding genocide” and abolishing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Both Schlossberg and Kasky are seeking to unseat Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., the 78-year-old who is retiring at the end of next year after decades in Congress. Nadler currently represents Manhattan’s West Side, from Chelsea and Greenwich Village, through Midtown and Hell’s Kitchen, all the way up to the Upper West Side.

Kasky’s announcement came on the heels of New York City Council member Chi Ossé launching a primary challenge against House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., in a neighboring congressional district amid an ongoing discussion about the party’s future.

But even Mayor-elect Mamdani has rejected Ossé’s primary launch against Jeffries, arguing it’s not “the right time” to challenge the highest ranking House Democrat.

As for Schlossberg, he is practically political royalty. But to New York City’s chronically online electorate, he is better known as the star of hundreds of satirical, and often absurd, viral videos, amassing close to 850,000 TikTok followers and nearly 770,000 on Instagram.

Despite the followers and the Kennedy connections, Schlossberg has a thin résumé. He most recently served as a political correspondent for Vogue during the 2024 presidential election.

Kasky and Schlossberg are far from the only candidates in an already jam-packed Democratic primary.

Nonprofit leader and activist Liam Elkind is also in the running, and Elkind’s own launch video follows a similar walk-and-talk style as his fellow young, progressive opponents.

Chief among the 26-year-old’s campaign promises is to “actually fight Trump,” in addition to improving the Democratic Party, ending corruption, affordability and civil rights.

Also campaigning in the crowded field are Assembly members Micah Lasher and Alex Bores as well as Council member Erik Bottcher.

According to 43-year-old Lasher, he is running to “revitalize the Democratic Party, fight Trump’s agenda, and deliver results that improve the lives of New Yorkers.”

Meanwhile, Bores, who is in his mid-30s, said he is “running for Congress because big systems have stopped working for the little guys — but together, we can fix them.”

And 46-year-old Bottcher is running to “keep the New York City dream alive and take back our country.”

Civil rights lawyer Laura Dunn, former journalist and political commentator Jami Floyd, Merrill Lynch and Mercury Capital Advisors alum Alan Pardee, and LGBTQ rights activist Matthew Shurka are all vying for the coveted Democratic nomination.

Forty-year-old Dunn said she is “running fearlessly for the people,” while 61-year-old Floyd notably did not vote for Mamdani this November and has been carving out a moderate position in the primary.

Pardee, 58, said he is running to create “policies that make our city livable for all families,” and Shurka, 37, said he is campaigning to “take on corruption, confront Donald Trump’s attacks on this city, and fight for the people who make New York home.”