By Gus Saltonstall
After months of speculation, Rep. Jerrold Nadler officially endorsed Upper West Side Assemblymember Micah Lasher as his successor in the NY-12 Congressional race.
In September, when Nadler first announced he would not be seeking re-election after 17 terms in office, The New York Times reported that the longtime Upper West Side elected official planned to eventually support Lasher in the race.
On Monday, that endorsement became official.
“No other candidate in the race comes close to the depth and breadth of Micah’s record,” Nadler said in a video endorsement. “Not just on one issue, but across the many fronts where Democrats need to be stronger and smarter than ever.”
As a reminder, Lasher currently represents the area from West 80th to West 125th streets in the Assembly.
Lasher called the endorsement an “honor of a lifetime.”
“It’s the honor of a lifetime to earn Congressman Nadler’s endorsement in this campaign to succeed him,” Lasher said. “He embodies the very best spirit of this district: strong progressive values, fierce independence, and deep thoughtfulness.”
Nadler’s endorsement of Lasher, who started his political career working for the longtime Congress member, came shortly after sources close to former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she is planning to endorse Jack Schlossberg for the seat. Schlossberg is the son of Caroline Kennedy and the only grandson of the late President John F. Kennedy.
The Democratic Primary for the NY-12 race will take place in June.
Here’s the video announcement for the Nadler endorsement of Lasher.
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But sure, let’s just hand it to a Kennedy with zero experience instead. That seems to work really well, right Nancy?
It would be nice if the Republican party could field a serious candidate.
Vote for Laura Dunn! She’s amazing and a very caring person to boot!
WSR does excellent reporting and I am counting on you to continue to cover this race in an unbiased way that gives equal air time and priority to all remotely viable candidates so that readers can judge for themselves. This is a major, major endorsement that definitely deserves its own article. But hopefully it will not become all Lasher, all the time. the candidate who screams the loudest and has the best PR machine and the most money should not be prioritized. Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately), there are a lot of them, but they should all be analyzed and discussed so readers can make informed decisions.
This race is begging for ranked choice voting and without it is going to be absolute chaos with so many candidates. We will really need to be careful what we wish for.