JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
On June 23, New York Democrats go to the polls. Voters in Manhattan's 12th Congressional District, one of the richest in the country, will pick the candidate who will most likely succeed retiring 17-term Congressman Jerry Nadler. One of the men competing for this reliably Democratic seat is Jack Schlossberg. Schlossberg seems to be trying to follow the path his grandfather, John F. Kennedy, took when he was elected to Congress almost eight decades ago. And his campaign has momentum - lots of attention, favorable press and the endorsement of Speaker of the House Emeritus Nancy Pelosi. But Schlossberg's quest hit a bump last week when The New York Times published a story detailing missed meetings, erratic behavior and high staff turnover. Jack Schlossberg joins me now. Welcome to ALL THINGS CONSIDERED.
JACK SCHLOSSBERG: Hey. How are you? Thanks so much for having me.
SUMMERS: Thanks for being here. OK. We'll get to The New York Times story, but for people outside of New York who know your family, they may not know you. Make the case. Why do you want to serve in Congress?
SCHLOSSBERG: Well, our campaign slogan is - believe in something again. This is our country's 250th birthday as a nation - New York City, where the Bill of Rights was signed. And I think about a past where America became the greatest country on Earth because people believed in government. And right now, it's really hard to believe anything that is coming out of our president's mouth, his cabinet officials' mouth (ph). They lie to us. We know it, and it's easy to get disillusioned.
But I'm running because I'll never stop believing in politics as a noble profession. And we've got a lot of work to do to make life better here in New York and around the country because the Democratic Party is in trouble. We're on the ropes. We've got no power on a federal level, and we need to shake things up and do things differently because we're running out of time.
SUMMERS: I want to push on this a bit, if I can, as to why someone with the background that you have - a law degree, a business degree, social media savvy - why someone like that would want to go to Congress. I mean, Congress has a 10% approval rating right now. So why do you or, frankly, would anyone want to serve in a body that so many Americans just don't respect and that they don't feel like is working for them?
SCHLOSSBERG: People ask me why I want to run for Congress, and I always laugh a little bit because I want to pass laws. That's why I want to go to Congress. As you said, I've got a law degree. I have worked in politics. I worked at the State Department and on campaigns. And I think that I have a lot to contribute to our party and to advocate on behalf of New York 12th, the place where I was born and raised. I want to make sure this district, which is, like, the center of the universe - you know, the whole world starts counting time every New Year's Eve from our district - I want to make sure that we are heard loud and clear in Washington. And politics in 2026 is different than it has been in the past. I know how government works and I can read and understand legislation as well as anybody. That's not enough anymore. You've got to also run a mini production company to get your message out there and become more persuasive as a party.
SUMMERS: I do have to ask, though. I mean, right now, momentum does seem to be trending towards Democrats, but anything is possible in politics. And the way that redistricting is playing out across this country means you could likely be headed into an often-gridlocked body as a junior congressman in the minority party. So I do want to ask, do you think it's actually possible to implement a progressive agenda?
SCHLOSSBERG: I absolutely do. Of course, I do. First of all, you know, things are bad right now. I understand. This is a dark moment in political history, and it's easy to give up and be disillusioned. But things have always been very difficult in American politics. And some of the most important progressive pieces of legislation - the postwar reconstruction amendments, the New Deal - these came after moments of intense struggle in our country and division. I mean, Trump has shown us exactly who he is. He is not popular. He is not for the people that he said he was for. And the economy is not doing well for working families.
I think we have a huge opportunity here to show people that the Democrats are a party of effective governments. And I think that that also means being more persuasive and making sure that we explain to people why we're the ones who are fighting to keep their healthcare. We're the ones who are fighting for sane immigration policy. We're the ones who are trying to lower their costs on their rent and their gas and their groceries. And we live in a polluted media ecosystem, and I know how to breathe in that environment. And I want to lend my voice and my energy and skills to that effort.
SUMMERS: We do need to take a couple of minutes to talk about The New York Times story that I mentioned. It describes erratic behavior, high staff turnover and missed meetings. And you have come out aggressively to refute the reporting in that article. And I don't want to spend a lot of time litigating everything. You've done that in other interviews. But I want to ask you about the sort of big question that the article poses. Are you ready for this job at this moment of political divisiveness?
SCHLOSSBERG: Absolutely. I have a lot of life experience and a lot of experience in breaking through, in advocating for the things that I believe in, speaking truth to power. And, you know, I'm so proud of the campaign that we run. People may not know this, but I'm running a insurgent campaign as an outsider. It might be hard for people listening to believe that a Kennedy is an outsider, but I am.
SUMMERS: Kennedy is an outsider who went to Harvard and Yale.
SCHLOSSBERG: Exactly. I am. I am running against political machines here in New York, and they don't want to change. And the same people I'm running against are the same people behind that article. And they quoted anonymous sources and said that I missed meetings. Look, I got started running campaigns in November. I decided, after a couple of weeks, that I didn't want to have all the consultants everybody has. I didn't want to do everything by the book like everybody was telling me. And I have a core group of people who have been with me since the beginning, and we're doing things really differently.
We don't have a super PAC. We don't take money from corporate PACs, from AIPAC, from AI companies. And we've released more policy plans than any other campaign, and we do more events than any other campaign. We've shaken more hands than any other campaign, and we're outraising every other campaign. We were happily being underestimated for the first six months...
SUMMERS: OK.
SCHLOSSBERG: ...Of the campaign. But about a month ago, we were declared the front-runner, and so now everybody's got something to say, and the attacks are coming. And the best that they've got is that maybe I took a nap back in November, and I think that that's kind of evidence that we're running a flawless campaign.
SUMMERS: Just to push you a bit - degrees from Harvard and Yale and knowing how to deliver a message and your social media acumen - those are all impressive things. But what do you say to some of the people in your district who wonder whether that's enough to get things done or who are uneasy with the fact that at 33 years old, you haven't really settled into a single job.
SCHLOSSBERG: Well, I would say that I've been working my entire life on the things that I care about. I've worked jobs abroad in Japan, at the State Department, as you mentioned, law and business degree. And I also worked for the Biden campaign as one of the top surrogates for the Biden/Harris campaign, getting more young people especially excited about our party than basically anybody else - definitely the people that I'm running against. So I've got experience breaking through and getting the very voters that we need to get excited about politics, excited about politics.
I would also say that none of the people that I'm running against knows how to be a congressman. The other two - one has completed one full term in the state assembly. The other is in his first - has completed zero full terms. And I don't have the same experience that they do, but I have a lot of life experience, and I have spent time studying politics, history and law. And above all, because of my energy, creativity and also the unique circumstances of who I am and my family, I come to Washington with something that all politicians want, and that is the ability to get attention for issues that they care about.
SUMMERS: And lastly, Jack, your sister Tatiana, died late last year, and you've talked openly about her loss. You've said she was your best friend and how deeply you feel her absence, that her death has made you realize how important it is to act. If you win in a little over a month from today, what would you say to her? What would she say to you?
SCHLOSSBERG: I think she would be laughing her head off and giving me a huge hug. We would be smiling about all of the success we had, the team we built, all the different kinds of people and funny situations that we found ourselves in. That's the thing I miss most, is being able to tell her about the funny things that only she would understand. But she's still with me all the time. She taught me a lot in life, but her final lesson was how to walk a single path in victory or defeat, and to make sure that you carry your head high and to make use of every precious moment that we have on Earth. And it's given me all the strength I need to keep going.
SUMMERS: We've been speaking with Jack Schlossberg, Democratic candidate for New York's 12th Congressional District. Thanks for the time.
SCHLOSSBERG: Thank you very much. I appreciate it. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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