Jack Schlossberg

Jack Schlossberg is the only grandson of former U.S. Pres. John F. Kennedy and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis who in 2026 ran in the Democratic primary for Congress from New York Cityand lost. He is also, depending on who you ask:

• A wicked smart, social-media savvy heir apparent to an American political dynasty
• An inexperienced political opportunist seeking to cash in on the family name
• A sensitive and caring son and brother
• A crass, profane, and unpredictable social media troll

Early years

Meet Jack Schlossberg

• Birth date: January 19, 1993
• Birthplace: New York City, New York, U.S.
• About his name: His birth name is John Bouvier Kennedy Schlossberg; Bouvier was Jacqueline Onassis’s maiden name.
• Education: Yale University, B.A. in history, 2015; combined J.D.-M.B.A. from Harvard University, 2022
• Current role: Running in the Democratic primary to represent New York’s 12th congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives
• Family: His parents are Caroline Kennedy and Edwin Schlossberg; his siblings are Rose Kennedy Schlossberg and the late Tatiana Kennedy Schlossberg.
• Quotation: “Since I started making videos, people have been calling me crazy, but there’s been a strategy and method to what I’ve been doing.”

Schlossberg was raised in Manhattan, New York, the son of Caroline Kennedy, JFK’s daughter, and Edwin Schlossberg, a designer and artist. His mother’s side of the family is Roman Catholic, and his father’s side is Jewish. When he was three years old, he served as ring bearer at the wedding of his uncle John F. Kennedy, Jr., and Carolyn Bessette. As a teenager, Schlossberg was a page and then an intern for Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry. In 2011 Kerry read Schlossberg’s high-school commencement speech into the Congressional Record.

Schlossberg received an undergraduate degree from Yale University and then a combined J.D.-M.B.A. from Harvard University. While in law school, he injured his back playing basketball, making it difficult to walk for several years—an unfortunate echo of his maternal grandfather, who also suffered from debilitating back problems. Schlossberg ended up having two hip procedures. While Caroline Kennedy was serving as U.S. ambassador to Japan under Pres. Barack Obama, Schlossberg joined her after graduating from Yale in 2015, working at an e-commerce company and the distillery company Suntory. More recently, he was a political correspondent for Vogue magazine in 2024.

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Social media “silly goose” and worse

Schlossberg’s first live TV appearance was on the Today show in 2017, alongside his mother. “I’m inspired by my family’s legacy of public service,” he said on the broadcast. “It’s something that I’m very proud of. But I’m still trying to make my own way and figure things out. So stay tuned—I don’t know what I’m going to do.” That year he told People magazine, on comparisons to JFK, “We live in a really different time than he did, and I’m trying to figure out what I’m really interested in and what I want to do.”

Schlossberg is active on social media, where he has a combined 1.7 million followers on X, Instagram, and TikTok. He has called himself a “silly goose” with his irreverent videos, but he also has been something of an agent provocateur. “On social media, Mr. Schlossberg sparred, trolled and went on the attack, often feuding with family members,” Maureen Dowd wrote in a 2025 New York Times profile.

Schlossberg has been especially critical of his cousin Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., the controversial Health and Human Services secretary. In one video, he made fun of RFK, Jr.’s gravelly voice, which is caused by the condition spasmodic dysphonia; the video was later deleted. Schlossberg told Dowd that, as he campaigned for Democrats in the 2020s, he realized “we need to specifically elect people who both get policy and know how to break through in new media, because it’s a toxic, polluted ecosystem, thanks to the president,” referring to Pres. Donald Trump.

But some of his social media activity is—in his own words—“creepy” or “weird,” such as posting on X: “True or false: Usha Vance is way hotter than Jackie O.” He has also criticized his former boss Anna Wintour for hosting the Met Gala in 2025, saying the excessive nature of the party was out of line with world events, and he called producer Ryan Murphy a “pervert,” in part for producing a show about JFK, Jr., his late uncle. Murphy, who is gay, accused Schlossberg of being homophobic, which Schlossberg denied.

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If Caroline Kennedy occasionally cringes at her son’s online activity, she has not let on publicly, telling The New York Times, “I’m impressed that he’s thought through the different ways of doing that and is willing to take the consequences when he takes a risk that people find offensive.”

Political career

In 2025, ahead of his entry into the congressional race, Schlossberg endorsed Zohran Mamdani, a democratic socialist, in the Democratic primary for mayor of New York, ahead of Mamdani’s eventual victory. Schlossberg pushed back against criticism that Mamdani was antisemitic because of his harsh criticism of Israel. He has said that he identifies culturally as a Jew and that, despite being raised Roman Catholic, his family observed Jewish holidays and traditions. In the congressional district he is seeking to represent, Jewish voters make up about 30 percent of the Democratic primary electorate. “Yeah, I’m Jewish,” Schlossberg said in a profanity-laced social media post. “We cannot have this thing of if you disagree with Israeli policy, you hate Jews. That’s not good, and that’s not fighting antisemitism.”

Before Schlossberg had announced his run, retiring Democrat Jerry Nadler dismissed him as a viable successor. “Well, there’s nothing particularly good or bad about a Kennedy holding my seat,” Nadler told CNN in September 2025. “But the Kennedy, unlike Schlossberg, should be somebody with a record of public service, a record of public accomplishment, and he doesn’t have one.”

Undeterred, Schlossberg announced that he was running for the seat in November 2025, joining a Democratic primary that already included State Assemblymen Micah Lasher and Alex Bores, journalist and lawyer Jami Floyd, and former financial executive Alan Pardee. Former Republican lawyer George Conway moved to New York and threw his hat into the ring in January 2026. The primary for New York’s 12th congressional district, which runs from the northern edge of Central Park down to Union Square, will be held in June 2026. “I’m not running because I have all the answers to our problems,” he said in his campaign 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.”

The same month that he declared his candidacy, his older sister Tatiana Schlossberg announced in a moving essay in The New Yorker that she was battling terminal cancer. She wrote of her brother’s desire to be her stem-cell donor; he was a 50 percent match and ultimately could not donate. The 35-year-old environmental journalist, author, and mother of two died December 30, 2025. Characteristically, Jack Schlossberg took to social media to remember his sister, posting quotations from JFK, Abraham Lincoln, Robert Frost, and his own sister. He closed with a photo of the two of them as teenagers, hands over their hearts at a ceremony.

In February 2026, Schlossberg’s campaign picked up a key endorsement when former Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi threw her support to the Schlossberg campaign saying: “Our history shows the future depends on a new generation of leaders who care and are willing to do the hard work of turning values into results. Jack embodies that tradition.”

But an early lead in the crowded race evaporated amid reports of chaos and staff turnover in the campaign and a sense that Schlossberg lacked the needed political experience to win the race. His messaging was sometimes criticized as generic and failing to connect with voters. Schlossberg wound up finishing third behind Democratic primary winner Micah Lasher, who is expected to win the seat in the reliably Democratic district in the November general election.