Gay New York City Councilmember Erik Bottcher, who is also seeking re-election to his Council seat, recently filed paperwork to run for New York’s 12th Congressional District, currently represented by longtime Democratic Rep. Jerry Nadler.
Nadler announced last month that he won’t seek an eighteenth term, opening the door for a wave of younger Democrats to vie for the safely blue seat.
Although Bottcher, 46, has yet to officially announce his campaign, he shattered a state record within 24 hours of filing, raising $683,241.26 — the largest first-day total ever for a single candidate in New York.
Several contenders have already entered the race, including State Assemblymembers Alex Bores, 34, and Micah Lasher, 43, both Manhattan Democrats; Manhattan Community Board member Jami Floyd; nonprofit CEO Liam Elkind, 26; and private equity executive Alan Pardee, 58.
Writer and political commentator Jack Schlossberg, 32 — grandson of President John F. Kennedy — has also formed an exploratory committee and may soon officially join the field.
Bottcher, whose Council district covers nearly half the congressional district — including the gay-friendly neighborhoods of Chelsea, Hell’s Kitchen, and the Upper West Side — said in a statement on Instagram that he was “blown away by the tremendous outpouring of support in such a short period.”
Mindful that his congressional ambitions could turn off voters in next week’s Council election, Bottcher previously told City & State: “I love my country and I love my city, and they’re under attack by fascist forces at the highest levels of our government.”
He said Nadler’s decision not to seek re-election creates an “incredible opportunity” for “a new generation to step up and take charge.”
Before his 2021 election to the Council, Bottcher served as former Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s LGBTQ liaison, chief of staff to then-Council Speaker Corey Johnson (D-Chelsea), who previously represented the district, and as an aide to State Sen. Brad Hoylman-Sigal (D-Manhattan) — the latter two of whom are gay political trailblazers in city politics.
If elected, Bottcher would become the first out gay member of Congress from Manhattan and only the third from New York City, following Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-Bronx) and former Rep. George Santos (R-Queens), whose seven-year prison sentence for fraud and identity theft was recently commuted by President Donald Trump.
Bottcher grew up in Wilmington, New York, a small town in the Adirondack Mountains. After graduating from Lake Placid High School, he wrote an open letter to the school board describing the anti-gay atmosphere and bullying he faced as a student, urging the district to adopt protections for LGBTQ youth. The following year, the board added a sexual orientation nondiscrimination policy, according to the Adirondack Daily Enterprise.
Although Bottcher identifies as a political progressive, it’s unclear whether more left-leaning voters will see him that way. His former bosses, Cuomo and Johnson are often viewed as more centrist, pro-business Democrats.
On the Council, Bottcher has mainly focused on rezoning, redevelopment, environmental policy, and gun reform. While those priorities align with mainstream Democratic values, they may not energize progressive activists, who — if they turn out as strongly as they did in this year’s mayoral primary — could determine the district’s next member of Congress.
Fashion designer Connor Ives says his now-iconic "Protect the Dolls" T-shirt -- first worn during the finale of his Fall/Winter 2025 ready-to-wear show in London -- has since raised more than $600,000 for the nonprofit Trans Lifeline. The design employs a decades-old phrase calling for solidarity with and protection of transgender women.
The shirt wasn’t originally intended as part of the collection. As Ives told The New York Times in April, he simply wanted "a T-shirt that says something" for the show, using the message as a call for solidarity with transgender people at a time when governments in the U.K. and U.S. were seeking to roll back rights.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom is defending both his record on transgender rights and his evolving stance on transgender athletes competing in women's sports.
Newsom drew backlash from LGBTQ advocates and progressives after saying it was "unfair" for transgender teenagers to compete against cisgender girls in track and field, during a March podcast interview with the late conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
Since then, critics have accused Newsom -- who's widely seen as harboring presidential ambitions -- of throwing the transgender community under the bus for political gain.
Most fundraisers put on by Food & Friends are about putting calories into your body.
Think Chef’s Best, with its seemingly endless stations of tasty bites from local eateries, or the now-shelved Dining Out for Life, where a night out at a restaurant once generated much-needed revenue for the organization, which provides nutritious meals -- and yes, calories -- to people living with serious and chronic illnesses such as HIV/AIDS and cancer across the DMV.
But now, Food & Friends is taking a different approach -- they want you to burn calories for a cause.
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