The name WILL make some oldtimers smile….
Younger voters will have no idea who Jack Schlossberg’s Mother IS or Who his Grandfather Was….
He is not the early favorite for the US House seat right now…
Jack Schlossberg officially entered the race to fill an open New York City House seat on Wednesday, the latest in a long line of Kennedys to join the political arena.
A Democratic influencer and grandson of former President John F. Kennedy, Schlossberg has cultivated a dedicated following on social media in recent years and recently served as a political correspondent at Vogue ahead of the 2024 election. Now, he hopes to parlay his notoriety into a successful campaign for a deep-blue New York House seat being vacated by the dean of New York’s congressional delegation, Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.). Nadler announced his plans not to seek reelection in September….
…
I’m not running because I have all the answers to our problems,” he said in a video announcement. “I’m running because the people of New York 12 do. I want to listen to your struggles, hear your stories, amplify your voice, go to Washington and execute on your behalf.”
Schlossberg cast his campaign as a cog in the broader Democratic effort to stymie President Donald Trump’s political agenda — and to quash any talk of a third term.
“We deserve better, and we can do better, and it starts with the Democratic Party winning back control of the House of Representatives,” he said. “With control of Congress, there’s nothing we can’t do. Without it, we’re helpless to a third term.”
Though the president has mused about running again for president in 2028 — and sold plenty of merch attesting to future electoral ambitions — Trump in October conceded he cannot run again under the Constitution.
But while Schlossberg boasts prodigious skill on social media, alongside more than 1.5 million followers on TikTok and Instagram, he’s far from the favorite in the coming Democratic primary for the House seat.
That would be New York Assemblymember Micah Lasher, Nadler’s heir apparentand a key political ally to many in New York….
image…..NY Times
Patrick Kennedy and Joseph Kennedy III were both reasonably effective politicians and U.S. Representatives (D).
While much respected as a D.A. and Congressman, Joe Kennedy made an inscrutable decision to run against incumbent and very popular Dem. Sen. Ed Markey, a hero to environmentalists and the man who defeated anti-bussing firebrand Louise Day Hicks for U.S. Rep. from Boston. Joe Kennedy predictably failed, and hasn’t been directly involved (so far as I know) in any prospective campaigns for office.
Patrick Kennedy (a Rhode Island state Rep.) won the U.S. House seat vacated by GOP Rep. Ron Machtley in 1994, when Machtley (later president of Bryant College) unsuccessfully sought the Republican nomination for Governor of Rhode Island. According to his Wikipedia entry, Patrick Kennedy considered but decided against running for the seat of wildly-popular U.S. Sen. (and ex-Gov.) John H. Chafee (the father of former Sen. & Gov. Lincoln Chafee). He retired from Congress in 2010, after several notorious incidents related to drug addiction, against which he is now an active campaigner.
Kathleen Kennedy Townsend only won elections to be Maryland Lt. Gov. as a running mate of Parris Glendenning. Her other campaigns in her own right failed. However, she was a popular U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Ireland, where many credit her for advancing progress towards The Good Friday Agreement of 1998 that ended the violent Catholic-Protestant/Republican-Unionist battle over the future of Northern Ireland.
Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg had to withdraw her candidacy to for New York Gov. David Paterson’s appointment to fill Hillary Clinton’s U.S. Senate seat in 2008 (when Clinton resigned to become Obama’s U.S. Secretary of State) after some disastrous interviews and campaign stops.
About John-John (JFK, Jr) and RFK (Jr), the less said the better.
¶ So (applying wild and ignorant generalisations), while I’d hardly be surprised if John-John’s son went to Congress, history doesn’t suggest he’d get a higher post such as those held by his grandfather and great-uncles (RFK and Ted Kennedy).
Corrections and amplifications welcome.
Ted?
How could I forget?
In many ways, Ted was by far the most successful in pursuing their dreams (e.g. Obamacare or the ACA).
Indeed…