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New York City Councilman Erik Bottcher.
His launch draws heavily on themes he shared in a recent interview with The Advocate.
New York City Council Member Erik Bottcher launched his campaign Thursday for New York’s 12th Congressional District, entering the 2026 Democratic primary with an argument rooted in both lived experience and political urgency.
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Bottcher, 46, is the only out gay candidate in the race. His campaign said he raised nearly $700,000 in the first 24 hours after opening an exploratory account, a powerful early fundraising signal.
Bottcher represents Manhattan’s District 3, which includes Chelsea, Hell’s Kitchen, Times Square, Flatiron, and the Garment District, and has long framed his politics through the lens of his own survival.
His announcement recounts growing up in a small Adirondack town, attempting suicide multiple times as a closeted teen, and spending a month in a mental health hospital. He says New York City “saved my life.”
His launch draws heavily on themes he shared in an interview with The Advocate last month. “This congressional district has a proud tradition of representatives who’ve fought for LGBTQ+ rights, from Bella Abzug to Jerry Nadler,” he said. “But we’ve never actually had one of our own at the table. Our community is under attack in terrifying ways, and it’s time to take the gloves off.” He added that the moment demands clarity: “I love my country, and right now it’s being torn apart by Donald Trump and his neo-fascist forces.”
Bottcher pledged to confront what he calls GOP “corruption, cruelty and chaos” and to hold Democrats accountable when they “fall short of the moment.” His team cites his re-election last year, with 90 percent of the vote, as evidence of the trust he has earned among his constituents.
With the seat open following the retirement of U.S. Rep. Jerry Nadler, Bottcher is entering an increasingly crowded Democratic field. Other candidates now in the mix include state Assembly Member Micah Lasher — widely viewed as Nadler’s protégé — state Assembly Member Alex Bores, nonprofit founder Liam Elkind, journalist and attorney Jami Floyd, and 32-year-old Jack Schlossberg, grandson of President John F. Kennedy, whose campaign launch on Wednesday added significant national attention.
On MSNBC Thursday, Bottcher argued that the appetite for generational change is real. “People are hungry for new leadership,” he told anchor Chris Jansing. He said Democrats must break with old habits: “We have got a bully in the White House who has been pushing us around, and we have been letting him push us around.” His campaign, he said, would be defined by urgency. “This is an emergency, and we need to start treating it like the emergency that it is.”
Bottcher said in a press release that he plans to campaign “everywhere, every day” across the East and West Sides.
Editor's note: This story has been updated with additional reporting.
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