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?
Like electing a president with zero experience. How’s that working out?
No president has experience unless it’s his second term.
Like this president had any experience in government service? He was a a real estate developer whose businesses declared Chapter 11 six times!
And now he’s applying that very same expertise (as it were) to national governance and international relations. Lucky us.
Most presidents have had experience in government — as a governor or senator, or in a cabinet position.
It would be nice if the Republican party could field a serious candidate.
Has a Republican I have to agree with you.
Or one who is not afraid of Trump. Sad what’s happened to the Republican Party.
The people of New York would vote against the cure for cancer if someone affiliated with Trump came up with it. Sad what’s happened to the Democratic Party. It’s one thing to not like Trump, another to do things that only hurt the people to spite him.
trump is cutting research and he’s cutting environmental regulations on coal and other carcinogenic substances.
He’s literally making cancer worse and his fans claim the problem is his detractors.
🤷
Lol, the only people opposed to a cure for cancer are MAGA and Trump administration appointees.
Talk about doing despicable, indefensible things out of spite….
Gosh, where have I heard about such petty, infantile behavior recently…?
Oh, right!
https://www.mediaite.com/media/tv/trump-says-he-raised-countrys-tariffs-by-9-after-not-approving-of-leaders-tone-in-phone-call-didnt-like-the-way-she-talked-to-us/
(Thereby likely undermining any legal defense for his crazed tariffs. Keep on yapping, Donnie.) And let’s not even mention bridges and tunnels….
Recall, in late 2020, high-profile democrats, including Kamala Harris, said they would NOT take the newly developed Covid shot because it was developed under the Trump admin. And they tacitly encouraged others to follow suit. They really did this. Oh, by the way they also took the shot as soon as they could, despite their prior virtue signaling.
Maybe it comes down to how we respond to relentless, pathological liars: some doubt and insist on verification, others embrace whole-hog.
Speaking of lying about Harris: https://apnews.com/article/fact-checking-560662930989 (“Altered video twists Kamala Harris statements on COVID vaccines”).
This is false and the video is easily available on YouTube. What she said is that she will take the vaccine if it is recommended by public health professionals like Fauci. She said if Trump is recommending it, presumably against the advice of public health professionals, she won’t take it. Very different from what was written above. Please pay attention to facts.
When I heard about the new Covid vaccines that were being fast tracked in an unprecedented way, I said I wouldn’t take it either under those conditions. But when it finally was available, people I trusted said it was safe and I got it as soon as possible. So this is really not an issue that means anything.
Urbanists love UWSer Mark Gorton who is a big anti-vaxxer and make excuses for him
I don’t remember that. That’s wild.
you don’t remember because it didn’t happen.
Trump is literally defunding pediatric brain cancer research. He’s taking funding away from kids with brain cancer. You can’t make this up. There’s a reason Trump isn’t well liked.
Perhaps a few million reasons.
Lols. Its the other way around. Republicans vote for people of the cult no matter how many crimes or felonies they have committed. And it is Trump that cancelled all cancer research.
Please provide proof that Trump “cancelled all cancer research”. I’m curious to see your sourcing.
Not to speak for Tim, and not to claim “all” cancer research was cancelled, but here are just a few — out of many more! — sources for you:
https://joycevance.substack.com/p/cutting-cancer-research
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2025/02/elon-musk-doge-purge-cancer-nuclear-weapons.html
https://www.mediaite.com/politics/boston-mayor-hits-back-at-paul-gosar-in-heated-exchange-stop-cutting-cancer-research/
https://www.mediamatters.org/health-care/fox-news-turns-blind-eye-cancer-research-funding-gets-decimated-trump-administration
These are some early reports; if we get lucky, maybe I can show you the rest.
Mary, the fact that he’s cancelled ANY cancer research is a problem, in my opinion. Aren’t there instances where he’s wiped out entire universities’ funding?
It’s one thing not to like mad tyrants, another to loathe and oppose them; history, if any, and the ironically named DHS may mark me down in the latter camp.
Meanwhile, I eagerly await word of Musk’s cancer cure and hope its manufacture doesn’t involve torturing and killing women and children of color, or indeed anyone. (Likewise for coerced inseminations, evidently a popular hobby among the Epstein crowd.)
If Elon Musk literally cured cancer, you would still hate him. Seems like the problem lies with you.
Yes, absolutely! Elon could cure death itself for all I care, but if he continued making all our lives miserable in the process you can be sure I wouldn’t be down kissing his feet.
It’s not given to everyone to defend merciless, drug-addled, world-wrecking Nazi pedophiles, and that I decline to do so is obviously my “problem” — I’m not so easily bought off. Should I also have a soft spot in my heart for Drs. Mengele or Sims? Please advise.
This is pure nonsense. Spoken like a true Republican. I’d vote for you!
If only a serious Republican candidate existed. But, in a field, somewhere, there might be one, wandering lost.
Even if there were, based on demographics, no Republican candidate for an UWS office has garnered more than ~12%-18% of the vote. I think one candidate MAY have gotten 20%. So all Republican candidates for UWS offices know “going in” that they are running solely to make sure that the conservative viewpoint and positions are not entirely “buried” or unexpressed.
Oxymoron
To overstate the matter by three letters.
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.
Lasher is not the candidate with the most money in this race, nor is he the candidate who is the most famous. He is the candidate with the most experience.
Alex Bores is the candidate with the most money in this race.
He and Schlossberg are the favorites of the establishment and have the most money and support. But they deserve no more coverage than any other viable candidate. Do you disagree?
And experience isn’t always a good thing? Trump currently has lots of experience as President…
I’d say he has virtually no experience as president (e.g., the man can’t even sign his own quid-pro-quo pardons) but a growing plenty as tyrant.
We need Laura Dunn to call him out! She sued the Trump administration!
We need *everyone* to call him out — and, where applicable, to sue him. The future rests with us.
LOL. Ok. What do I do now? Defy the other hundred-year-old powerhouse, or this one? I guess I’ll wait for the DSA endorsement! I mean, people, it’s life-changing choices here, let’s be united! What does this guy do again for us?
P.S. When do we get to see the trading logs, Nancy?
As they say, the speaker of the house always wins.
Hopefully Laura Dunn will win this time! She is truly the one for the people!
Micah just got in to the assembly Is he really ready to move up? Besides, he seems to be just constantly repeating the same old “progressive” talking points like the “greatest hits “ of the UWS. What an empty suit.
Schlossberg Is not much better. Not sure what he stands for. Sure, we like the Kennedy’s but he absolutely no experience
We all agree however that it as time for Nadler to exit. We will name a school (park) for him. We thank you for your service.
But, seriously people – can’t we do better?
There’s a reason why they put Micah in the assembly.
Please someone tough on crime, add more police and cameras.
Members of the NYS Assembly and the NYC Congressional delegation don’t run the NYPD or the DAs for the 5 counties of NYC.
That you have to move outside Manhattan for.
Minneapolis, for example.
About time, Jerry! Lasher is the real deal and has the props to prove it. The rest are in it for the thrill or diversion. I can’t believe the celebrity candidates thinking that a flippant blog or loyalty endorsements would substitute for experience, imagination, hard work, insight, intelligence and character. Give me substance over fluff anytime.
Jerry, I agree with you. You certainly know this district better than any other political leader. I was surprised when another person had a different view!
I am surprised the party didn’t go with Hoylman or Scott Stringer.
There really are no words to express how little I care about Jerry Nadler’s endorsement.
“Meet the new boss. Same as the old boss”.
Except, contrary to the rest of The Who’s lyrics, Upper West Side voters WILL get fooled again!
It is actually “natural” for an outgoing elected official to endorse his or her closest mentee. Lasher has been basically mentoring with Nadler for well over a decade.
He also happens to be a really smart and really nice guy. Nut not so “nice” that he can’t or won’t go “toe to toe” with Republicans (and maybe even some Democrats).
Lasher is not simply the natural successor to Nadler; he is a savvy, knowledgeable, and nimble leader in his own right.
Nadler made the right choice.
I’d like all of these candidates to make a comment about Jimmy Lai.
Yesterday, Chinese dissident Jimmy Lai was sentenced to 20 years in prison by a Hong Kong court—effectively a life sentence, since he is 78. But so far, there have been no protests on college campuses, editorials in mainstream media, or celebrity messages in support of him. Weird, right?
Sure, let them google him first.
A lot of progressive activism is performative, they care more about being outraged at something for attention and to become social media famous to build their careers rather than actually help people. They care about people as long as they can show how morally superior they are and how people who aren’t in their mold are beneath them.
Here’s how Malcolm X felt
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ArHhMabjWwg
And besides, hasn’t scientific research conclusively established that ALL opposition to cruelty, injustice, lawlessness, and authoritarianism is purely performative? That’s what big daddy says, anyhow.
Look at how progressives act with people when the cameras are not around. Look at how they act with people who are different than them or see as beneath them. I have seen it.
Next, let’s have a quick look at how the other guys act when the cameras ARE around:
https://images.wsj.net/im-282240
Compare & contrast.
Eugene: I don’t know what you’ve seen, but someday you might care to investigate how regressives behave under similar circumstances. There’s ample evidence* and it isn’t pretty. If some on the left have been known on occasion merely to pretend to virtue, this is not a defect shared by the right: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/feb/11/vice-signalling-how-hatred-poisoned-politics (“The rise of vice-signalling: how hatred poisoned politics”). Insincere benevolence vs. honest malice: take your pick!
_____
*E.g., remember the NY Young Republican Club Affair?
All for Manhattan liberals refusing to look themselves in the mirror.
To Jerry. Sorry you are leaving congress but Micha lasher is a great choice. Attended his neighborhood meeting and I was impressed. Thank you for 17 terms.
More of the same. The government we deserve.
It would be nice if we had a functioning Republican party in Manhattan. But we don’t. So this is the race. The primary.
Just as I am thankful SARS-CoV-2 wasn’t even more deadly, so I am content with the state of the Republican Party in Manhattan.
I was working for Assemblyman Andrew Stein back before Nadler ran for anything. He was kind of a Stein groupie. He was at our office at 53rd and Third Avenue so often I though he was a high school kid looking for a job. Turns out he was a college student just looking to make some connections. They were the days that Geraldo was uncovering the the Willowbrook human warehousing scandal and other “mental hospitals” keeping patients money and warehouseing them. Then Stein & Rivera moved on to the nursing home scandals.
Nadler was ever-present.
I left NYC for a while and was surprised to find that Nadler had, in fact, become an Assemblyman. And by the time I moved back to NYC many years later was surprised that Nadler had hardly made a dent in local politics at all.
There is something to be said for not being endorsed by the powers that be.
I think Kennedy has a fire inside him. He wants this and I hope he gets it.