In the Wake of Jerry Nadler’s Retirement, A Conversation With the Current Lone Candidate in the Race

By Gus Saltonstall

In the wake of longtime Rep. Jerrold Nadler’s Monday announcement that he would not seek re-election for New York’s 12th Congressional District, which includes the Upper West Side, eyes around the city, state, and nation turn to the upcoming open-seat primary race.

Though several names are floating as potential candidates, as of September 3, just one person has announced his candidacy for the position: Upper West Side native Liam Elkind.

Elkind, 26, grew up on West 112th Street. At the end of July, he announced he would run for Nadler’s seat, which also includes the Upper East Side and Hell’s Kitchen. In his announcement video, Elkind “respectfully asked” Nadler to consider retiring, after serving more than three decades in Congress.

Now, many months before the 2026 primary election, Nadler has said he’ll do just that.

On Wednesday, Elkind visited the West Side Rag office to discuss the race, how Nadler’s retirement changes the dynamics, and what Elkind would do in Congress.

The interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

WSR: A major part of your launch video was that it was time for Jerry Nadler to retire and step aside for a younger leader, and that has now happened. How does his decision change this race, and specifically, how does it change your campaign?

Elkind: When we started this race, we started with nothing. My brother took my headshots. My girlfriend made my logo. We had no idea if this was going to go anywhere. Then, 24 hours in, we got 3 million views on the launch video, which had a respectful ask to a man I grew up voting for, to make way for a new generation of leaders.

[Nadler] answered the call, which I think is a testament to his remarkable leadership and a recognition that this moment calls for something different. A lot of people are going to get into this race, and the more the merrier. Competitive primaries are a good thing for democracy. I hope that all the people that get into this race join me in rejecting corporate PAC money, fighting for universal healthcare, fighting for term limits for members of Congress and Supreme Court justices, and fighting to ban the corrupt practice of Congressional stock trading. We as a party, we as a city, and we as a country have to start thinking about politics differently. That it is not just blood sport, and while when we fight, we fight, and we fight for a righteous cause — but that the fight is not the point, that it is about what we can build on the other side of the fight.

Upper West Side Assemblymember Micah Lasher filed on Thursday to create the committee “Micah Lasher for Congress,” but has not officially announced his candidacy, as first reported by City & State.

WSR: What are the positives of younger leadership, and what do you say to someone who might question your lack of political experience? [Elkind co-founded the nonprofit Invisible Hands during the COVID-19 pandemic, which organized volunteers to deliver food, medicine, and other essentials to homebound New Yorkers. He has not held political office.]

Elkind: Young people are not confined to thinking about politics as, the way it has been done is the way it must be done. If you’re 30 years old, you’ve never been eligible to vote where [Donald] Trump wasn’t on the ballot. Politics is completely different now and I think people that came to political age in a different era, belong to a different era of politics, when there was more bi-partisanship and when we didn’t have an aspiring dictator take over the whole country.

We’re facing a real crisis now, and I think it’s going to take people who aren’t confined to the old way of thinking about politics to get us out of it. The problem with Trump is not that he had insufficient experience, it is that he is a wannabe dictator. And, having people who can think about things differently can be a benefit, particularly people with the type of energy, urgency, and vision that we need in this moment. To see a crisis and run toward it.

In terms of [my experience], I think it’s a fair question to ask, and like anybody else in this race, you have to prove that your experience meets this moment. To me, people would have said, what is a 20-year-old college kid trying to do starting a nonprofit that recruits thousands of volunteers? But what we did is get organized, get to work, and ran toward a crisis. For months in the pandemic, if you reached out to the government and asked for help, the people we’ve been putting into office again and again said, “We can’t help you, but call this number.” That number was my personal phone number. Our social safety net shouldn’t rest on one guy remembering to pick up his phone. 

WSR: Nadler had and spoke about the amount of “clout” he possessed on Capitol Hill. As a freshman member, how would you go about building those relationships with other leaders?

Elkind: I’m lucky that I already have a number of relationships on the Hill. Howard Dean endorsed me yesterday, former DNC chair and former governor of Vermont, which I think is a testament to the type of relationship building I can bring to bear. To be specific, I would want to join the [House] Oversight Committee, because this administration is in desperate need of oversight, and the Small Business Committee. The way we treat our small businesses in this country is horrible. It’s shameful. And as somebody who has run a small business and tried to do contracts with the government at all levels, [I can say] it is really difficult. 

WSR: Do you have a first bill you would look to sponsor?

Elkind: The first thing I would want to do is repeal the Big Bill for Billionaires [the official name of the tax and spending legislation President Trump signed into law in July is the ‘One Big Beautiful Bill Act’]. Millions of people are going to lose SNAP [food stamps] and health care. The first thing I would do is work to repeal that bill. Secondly, I have a number of priorities, everything from gun control, to abortion protections, to making it easier to build housing across the country. There are a number of priorities I have, I don’t have one bill that I’m going to try to get in right away, but I’m going to hit the ground running and try to pass bills on every single front that I can. And continue to work to hold this administration accountable because for the next two years, we’re going to need it.

WSR: Going into your platform, I wanted to get into some specifics on how you would fight Trump, how would you go about seeking to improve the Democratic Party, and how would you look to improve affordability.

Elkind: Let’s take fight Trump first. We are in a crisis. So, what it looks like, let’s get specific, lobbying, protests, boycotts, organizing, putting our bodies on the line, and politically speaking, denying the Republicans a quorum — we saw the Texas House Democrats do something like that — launching discharge petitions in the House, pressuring our Senate colleagues to refuse to confirm any of Trump’s unqualified and corrupt Cabinet nominees. We are still confirming these people, what are we doing? We are complicit in this now, and I don’t think we should be. Those days of drinking a whiskey with other folks in office [the opposition party], no, come on, these guys are trying to take over the country. Wake up. Let’s get to work.

WSR: Improving the Democratic Party?

Elkind: It’s what we say. It’s how we say it. It’s where we say it. We have to be thinking about how we are actually updating our values for the 21st century. How are we making sure we are not just talking about health insurance, but everyone should have health insurance, and that should be a clear marker for the Democratic Party.

Also, it doesn’t matter to me if my grandpa has health insurance, if we can’t get him treated for his Alzheimer’s because we don’t have a cure. So, it’s also about investing in the cures for the diseases that are going to become more prevalent over the next 10 years. Investing in senior care. Investing is Alzheimer’s, Parkinsons and hearing loss. Medicare should cover vision, dental, hearing, because how does it make sense that you have a healthcare program for seniors, and you’re not addressing three of the biggest problems that seniors face?

How we say it. We need leaders who are more generationally relevant. Young people, especially men, are slipping away from the Democratic Party in record numbers. How do we make Democrats better? We empower them to be able to speak to the populations directly impacted by them, and those falling away from them. I am one of those people. I am a true blue Democrat, I’ve voted Democrat every opportunity I have, and I don’t think I’ve ever missed an election. But they’re [Democrats] not speaking to us, and we need them to be. We need leaders who can speak to those issues and this ties into affordability.

I’m a young guy who doesn’t have health insurance, who is looking around in the city I grew up in, wondering if I’m going to be able to raise my family here. We need leaders who can speak to that crisis. Authentically from the heart, as something that impacts them too, that is their pain also, and who can get to work to address it. 

WSR: Being a member of Congress is a national job in many ways, but how would you look to balance the local aspect as well? How do you continue to work for an older resident who lives on 78th Street and needs help in her building?

Elkind: That’s what this job is for. The political fight is important. The Washington D.C. fight is important. But I’m a New York guy. I started a nonprofit to deliver food to exactly that type of resident who lives on 78th Street, who was feeling scared to go to the grocery store. We called it Invisible Hands for a reason, because it’s not about me or you, it’s about the invisible connections that bind a community together in a time of crisis. That kind of community tie is essential, and particularly when we have a president who is trying to further divide us. Having leaders who can speak to those deep rooted connections in all of us is more important than ever.

That’s where I come from. That’s my favorite thing to do. To meet people, to hear their stories, and figure out what I can do for them. That’s the job of a public servant.

Invisible Hands eventually became part of the larger organization Commonpoint, where Elkind remains a board member.

WSR: You grew up on the Upper West Side, a neighborhood that has a reputation for political activity and engagement. Do you think growing up in this community inspired you to pursue what you are doing now?

Elkind: I was always politically interested. I went to vote with my mom. She would always take me into the voting booth and show me how it was done, and she told me, ‘This is a beautiful, powerful, fragile thing. That we get to choose our leaders.’ I feel like I didn’t grow up fully understanding just how precious that was, both geographically and historically. We get to choose. Nobody else. You don’t like how your leaders are acting? Guess what, you get to vote against them. You get to run against them. That’s amazing, and it’s so worth holding onto. It’s worth fighting for. So, I definitely grew up feeling that, but no, I had no interest in politics professionally until Trump was elected the first time.

WSR: And any favorite spots in the neighborhood?

Elkind: I grew up in between Tom’s Diner and Cathedral of St. John the Divine. I always used to say, if I grew up on one side, I would have become an actor, and if I grew up on the other side, a member of the clergy. But, I grew up across from Book Culture, so I became a nerd.

Favorite spots, Absolute Bagels, it’s just depressing it closed, that was always a great place. Hungarian Pastry Shop, that place slaps. Zabar’s obviously. I used to go to Shakespeare camp at Calhoun, and I would walk down the park every morning with my brother, and that was my first time properly exploring the city without my parents there, and that was really special.

WSR: Any final message?

Elkind: I love this city. These are my streets. I always say I was born in New York City and I hope I die in New York City. When I die, just chuck my body in the Hudson River. This is the greatest city ever constructed. It’s been going through some really hard times and I want to be able to serve it as best I can, with all my heart. I want to be able to raise my family in the city that raised me. If we continue down the same path we’re going, that will not be possible, but I think it can be if we have the right vision.

You can find out more about Elkind on his campaign website — HERE.

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