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Jerry Nadler Is Still Campaigning

His name isn’t on the ballot, but the congressman is pouring his heart and soul into electing Micah Lasher to succeed him in Congress.

Representative Jerry Nadler (D-NY) speaks on May 27, 2026, in Newark, New Jersey, after inspecting Delaney Hall, which is being used as an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center.

On a mild late spring evening last week, members of the Trust for Public Land, along with veterans of a liberation struggle that transformed New York City and the world, gathered to mark the 10th anniversary of the Stonewall National Monument, the first national park site dedicated to LGBTQIA history. There, in the midst of the celebration, was the 79-year-old New Yorker who, as part of his decades of advocacy for economic, social, and racial justice, had authored the Stonewall National Historic Site Establishment Act.

A beaming Jerry Nadler commemorated the Greenwich Village monument’s anniversary with a call to “recommit to the fight for equality, fairness, and dignity for all.”

Nadler, the dean of New York City’s congressional delegation, is retiring as the representative for New York’s 12th Congressional District after 50 years as a member of the New York State Assembly and the US House. He moves through Manhattan neighborhoods these days as a venerable yet approachable figure, widely admired for putting progressive values into practice to transform his city and his country. Former speaker Nancy Pelosi has described Nadler as “the conscience of the House”—a relentless champion of civil rights, civil liberties, and the rule of law who, as chair of the House Judiciary Committee, twice oversaw impeachments of Donald Trump. He is also the senior Democrat on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, whose fierce advocacy for projects like the Second Avenue Subway extension into East Harlem serves as a reminder of Nadler’s storied determination to use his federal role to build up the nation’s largest city.

At a time when public approval of Congress is dismal, Nadler maintains a 67 percent approval rating in recent polling of NY-12 voters. Even as Democrats around the country express frustration with their party’s aging leadership, The New York Times points out that “few incumbents remain more popular at home than Mr. Nadler, a fixture of Manhattan politics who served as a leading foil to Mr. Trump during his two impeachments.”

This week that popularity will be put to the test in the political fight to succeed Nadler.

A crowd of candidates is competing to replace Nadler in Manhattan’s overwhelmingly Democratic 12th district, which covers some of the most historically liberal and politically engaged turf in the country. Tuesday’s Democratic primary has attracted tens of millions of dollars in outside spending on television, social media and ubiquitous mailings. Yet the quiet voice that may well be heard above the free-spending cacophony is that of Jerry........

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