New York's 12th congressional district is holding what should be a routine Democratic primary for a safe Manhattan seat, and instead has somehow produced a race featuring a Kennedy whose most notable credential is a Vogue column he barely used, a Republican-turned-tough-guy doing whatever the hell George Conway is doing, and a full-blown proxy war between rival artificial intelligence companies. This is fine. Everything is fine.
The Seat Nobody Expected to Turn Into a Circus
When Jerry Nadler announced last year he was retiring after 33 years in Congress, the 12th district should have produced a quiet, orderly succession in one of the safest Democratic seats in America. The district covers the Upper West Side, the Upper East Side, and Billionaires' Row. These are not swing voters. These are people who have strong opinions about which farmer's market has the best heirloom tomatoes.
Instead, as The Guardian reports, NY-12 has become one of the most closely watched Democratic primaries in the country, a race that has somehow become a referendum on every single thing Democrats are currently fighting about: who can scream loudest about imprisoning Donald Trump, who is the most credibly anti-AI, and, apparently, who is the coolest. The Democratic Party, never exactly known for its swagger, is now holding auditions for swagger.
The Kennedy Who Skateboards and Wrote Seven Articles
Let's talk about Jack Schlossberg, because we absolutely have to. He is 33 years old, the grandson of John F. Kennedy, has an MBA from Harvard, and has never held public office. His professional record, per The Guardian, includes a brief stint as a Vogue political correspondent in 2024, a job announced via a profile that praised his "towering frame, dark hair, and strong jawline" and included a photo of him on a skateboard. He appears to have written exactly seven pieces for the magazine. One of them was a list of five things to watch before the Biden-Trump debate. Another was a repost of a speech he gave at the Democratic National Convention.
So just to be clear: this man wants to represent Manhattan in the United States Congress, and his most recent journalism output would not earn passing marks in an undergraduate intro course. The Kennedy name, a chiseled jawline, and some paddleboarding content are essentially the campaign platform.
To his credit, Schlossberg is at least self-aware about the absurdity, in the most aggressively annoying way possible. Asked by The Guardian about questions regarding his qualifications, he delivered a speech dripping with sarcasm: "Yeah, the Democratic party has been way too cool. We've been way too exciting. We need more old people, we need more people with less energy who are not really willing to take any risks." It's a funny bit. It is also the answer of a man who does not want to talk about his resume, because his resume is seven Vogue articles and an MBA.
George Conway Is Doing Something Deeply Strange
Then there is George Conway, the Republican lawyer, former husband of Kellyanne Conway, and longtime Trump critic who has decided that what his political career needs is a hard-man persona. The Guardian describes his effort to cultivate a "tough guy" image as "quixotic," which is the politest possible word for it. This is a man who became famous as a litigator and cable news talking head, and is now apparently cosplaying as a bruiser from an early 80s action film in a Manhattan congressional primary.
Conway's case for himself rests heavily on his anti-Trump credentials, which are genuinely extensive and genuinely real. He has spent years being one of the more articulate Republican voices against Trumpism. But running for Congress in a Democratic primary, in a Manhattan district, while also apparently trying to seem tough? It is a lot of pivots happening simultaneously.
The Actual Grownup in the Room
Micah Lasher, a New York state representative who The Guardian says accurately describes himself as a "nerd," has the kind of resume the other candidates are conspicuously lacking. He worked his first political campaign at 16. He was managing a city council campaign by 19. He served as chief of staff to the New York attorney general, director of policy to the New York governor, and director of state legislative affairs to then-Mayor Michael Bloomberg. He also worked directly for Nadler, who endorsed him in February, calling him "New York's protector-in-chief against all things Trump."
Lasher led in a mid-May poll, though The Guardian notes the polling has been volatile throughout. Also in the race is Alex Bores, another state representative whose campaign has apparently become a proxy conflict between rival AI companies, because of course it has. If you had "tech industry pours money into Manhattan congressional race to fight about chatbots" on your 2026 bingo card, congratulations.
What This Race Is Actually About
The Guardian frames NY-12 as a proxy battle over the Democratic Party's future, and it is hard to disagree. Nadler himself told the New York Times that watching the Biden situation "said something about the necessity for generational change in the party." He is 79 years old and spent 33 years in Congress. His endorsement of Lasher signals he wants a capable insider, someone who knows how the machinery works, to take the seat.
But Schlossberg's candidacy represents a real tension in the party right now. Democrats watched Biden's age and declining acuity sink a presidency, and a lot of voters, particularly younger ones, are hungry for something that at least looks energetic and new. Schlossberg is energetic and new. He is also spectacularly unqualified by any traditional measure. The question NY-12 voters have to answer is whether vibes and a famous last name are enough, or whether the moment actually requires someone who has spent decades learning how to govern.
The Dingo Take
Here is the thing about the Schlossberg candidacy that should actually worry Democrats: it works, or at least it might. In an era when the party is getting beaten on aesthetics, on energy, on the basic question of who seems like a living human being rather than a C-SPAN fixture, the argument for a photogenic 33-year-old Kennedy with bodybuilding videos is not insane on its face. The Democratic Party does have a gerontocracy problem. Acknowledging that is not wrong.
But there is a meaningful difference between "we need younger candidates" and "we need candidates whose primary qualification is being young and attractive." Seven Vogue articles is not a policy portfolio. A Jack Stack sandwich at Barney Greengrass is not a legislative record. If Democrats have spent the last two years correctly arguing that competence and experience matter, that government is complicated and should be handled by people who understand it, then nominating someone whose main credential is an MBA and a famous grandfather is a hell of a way to demonstrate that they meant it.
Lasher is the obvious answer here and the Democrats in this district almost certainly know it. The worry is that "obvious answer" has not exactly been this party's strong suit lately. If Schlossberg wins on vibes alone, we will spend the next decade writing about Congressman Kennedy's Instagram presence while the actual work of legislating gets done by staffers whose names nobody learns. Which would make him, honestly, a pretty normal member of Congress. God help us all.
