Jack Schlossberg thinks his grandfather would have been nice at social media. He’s much less certain JFK would acknowledge the nation he as soon as led.
“I think he would be shocked at how far we have fallen in terms of setting the standard for the rest of the world to follow on human rights, democracy, and freedom,” the 33-year-old Democratic congressional candidate advised Fortune on the sidelines of a CEO Initiative dinner in New York City on Wednesday evening.
But Schlossberg shortly added that former President John F. Kennedy would marvel at what America has constructed, citing a strong financial system, an modern non-public sector, and breakthroughs in expertise and science.
“I think my grandfather would be proud of how much our society has accomplished together,” he mentioned.
Schlossberg is the solely grandson of President John F. Kennedy, the son of Caroline Kennedy, and is broadly seen as the subsequent standard-bearer of the Kennedy political legacy. His feedback faucet right into a broader anxiousness about America’s international standing—and spotlight the central pressure in Schlossberg’s political message: pleasure in the nation’s achievements, paired with concern about its course.
He argued that Kennedy, the man who solved the Cuban Missile Crisis in the Nineteen Sixties, “without firing a shot and stared down the Soviet Union without blinking,” would be unsettled by the identical issues the nation continues to be going through six many years later, from healthcare to training to immigration. “We need to do better.”
Inside Schlossberg’s first run for Congress
Schlossberg is operating in a hotly contested race to fill New York’s twelfth District seat at the moment held by retiring Democratic Rep. Jerry Nadler, who has served in Congress since 1992.
He’s going through off in opposition to Assembly Members Alex Bores and Micah Lasher, Trump critic George Conway, public well being researcher Nina Schwalbe, and others in a district that covers Manhattan’s Upper West Side, Hell’s Kitchen, and elements of the East Side. But in February, Schlossberg landed a strong backer in his first foray into politics and shared an endorsement letter he obtained from former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
“This is a consequential moment for the country — faith in our politics is fractured, and trust in government is tenuous,” Pelosi mentioned in the statement. “This moment calls for leaders who understand the stakes and how to deliver for the people they serve.”
Why Schlossberg says voters have misplaced religion
The spine of his marketing campaign is constructed round a slogan he acknowledges is “a little cheesy”: consider in one thing once more.
Speaking to Fortune’s Diane Brady, Schlossberg related his grandfather’s legacy to what he sees as the Democratic Party’s defining failure of this second: not a collapse in coverage, however a collapse in conviction. “I want a party that has the courage again and gives people something to believe in again, because we are right now at an all-time low for people who believe in government.”
The information backs him up. According to a Pew Research Center survey, simply 17% of Americans say they belief the federal authorities to do what is true “just about always” or “most of the time,” rating amongst the lowest readings in almost seven many years of monitoring.
While the Democratic National Committee’s postmortem of what went improper throughout the 2024 election nonetheless stays below wraps regardless of Chair Ken Martin’s public pledge to launch it, Schlossberg supplied his personal learn on what Democrats maintain getting improper with younger voters.
“I don’t think that people are as disillusioned as you might expect, and I don’t think that they are as far left as some of the rhetoric would have you believe,” he mentioned. The actual downside is a market failure. “There hasn’t been people serving the market of young people who are interested in politics and what they want to hear about. Young people are not a monolith, and young people are really smart. They [are] really able to tell authenticity from someone who’s not telling the truth.”
Voters “aren’t looking for a superhero,” he mentioned. “They just want someone who kind of knows how to speak their language, meet them where they are, and give them something of value.”
Fortune’s Diane Brady and Democratic Congressional Candidate Jack Schlossberg talk about his marketing campaign throughout the Fortune CEO Initiative New York Dinner.
Democrats are ‘late to the game’
Schlossberg, a content material creator with almost 1.9 million followers throughout TikTok, Instagram, and X, has recognized social media as a crucial weak point in the Democratic technique. He’s additionally self-deprecating about his personal function in fixing it. “If I’m one of the best at this,” he advised the viewers, “it’s not saying much.”
Before launching his political profession, the Yale and Harvard Law School graduate labored at a surf shop in Hawaii, volunteered as an EMT, and penned opinion items for Vogue, however has change into identified for his witty political commentary and provocative social media presence as a self-described “silly goose.”
“Other than my mother, I’m probably the last person who expected me to be a content creator,” he mentioned. “That was not really my path in life.”
In 2024, Schlossberg headed to Wilmington, Delaware, to supply his concepts to the Biden marketing campaign. They weren’t nicely obtained. “Long story short, I quit the campaign because I thought, if I don’t do this my way, I’m not going to be able to live with myself,” he mentioned. About a month later, the marketing campaign referred to as him again.
The expertise solely sharpened his analysis of the celebration’s broader downside: “We’ve been out-competed in terms of reaching young people, especially…and telling them a story about what we’re for and not just being a reactive party that is against things.”
His recommendation for politicians making an attempt to succeed in voters: “Be all parts of yourself. You don’t just have to be the candidate. People respond when you’re also the uncle, or the son, or the sports fan, or the humorous person that you might be. It’s about showing all different sides of your personality.”
On the sidelines, Schlossberg reiterated his take: “The Democratic Party was definitely late to the game on social media a year and a half ago.”
Schlossberg’s social media playbook
Schlossberg’s formulation for viral social media success? Have no formulation in any respect.
“My social strategy is to have none,” he mentioned. “It’s to try to provide value to people, whatever that may be,” emphasizing that whereas he leans on jokes and witty takes, he at all times wraps it round one thing substantive.
“Maybe it’s a sense of humor, maybe it’s something inspiring, an accomplishment, or maybe it’s laying out information in a clear and intelligible, digestible way so that people can get educated,” he mentioned. “A lot of the videos that do the best aren’t the ones that are wacky or pictures of me, a lot of times, they’re videos where I clearly lay out information in a way that people can understand.”
And if his grandfather have been alive in the present day?
“I think he would have no idea how to use a phone, but I think, for some reason, he would probably be pretty good at social media. He was very media savvy in his own day.”
This story was initially featured on Fortune.com
