Molly Jong-Fast is thinking about challenging Jerry Nadler

NEW YORK — Novelist turned political journalist Molly Jong-Fast wants somebody “serious” to run against Rep. Jerry Nadler in 2026 — so she doesn’t have to do it herself.

The Vanity Fair correspondent and podcast host has been talking to political consultants about a run against the 77-year-old Manhattan Democrat. But Jong-Fast told POLITICO she’s “still really on the fence.”

“If someone who is a good communicator and a serious Democrat will run for that seat,” Jong-Fast said in a phone call Friday, “then I absolutely will not. If there’s someone who’s an AOC or a Maxwell Frost — if there’s someone like that who will run — then I will just be delighted.”

Nadler’s profile could hardly be more different than Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez or Frost, the 28-year-old Florida Democrat. The dean of New York’s congressional delegation, Nadler has held the office for 32 years, since 1992. But in December he was pushed out of his role as the top Democrat on the powerful Judiciary Committee by Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, who another member told Punchbowl has “reenergized” the committee.

“It's not about their age, it's about their ability,” Jong-Fast said. “And clearly the fact that Jerry has been removed from his committee means that leadership does not have faith in him. If leadership does not have faith in him, then the voters should not have faith in him.”

Nadler has already filed to run for reelection. In fact, he told New York magazine last year he could run for another five terms. His chief of staff, Robert Gottheim, noted that Nadler easily beat veteran Rep. Carolyn Maloney in a competitive primary in 2022 and didn’t even face a primary in 2024 before getting reelected in November with 80 percent of the vote.

“He’ll put his over 30-year record of accomplishments against anyone,” Gottheim said. “The district seems pretty happy with his representation and work in Congress. He takes every election at a time and he intends to run for reelection.”

Time will tell if the first midterm election of President Donald Trump’s second term results in the same fed-up-with-the-old-guard energy that helped Ocasio-Cortez topple longtime Rep. Joe Crowley in 2018 — and if so, whether a 46-year-old Upper East Sider who’s about to release a book about being the daughter of feminist author Erica Jong, is the one to seize it.

Jong-Fast understands that and put the odds of a campaign at 80 percent not running, 20 percent running — down from 50-50 at the start of the interview.

Nadler may already have a well-known challenger in Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen, who has become an unlikely “resistance” hero for testifying against the president. Cohen decided against taking on Nadler last cycle, but then told New York mag he’d announce a 2026 run the day after Election Day. That day has come and gone with no announcement, but Cohen told POLITICO Friday he is still planning to run.

There are also a handful of Manhattan elected officials who would be eager to jump in the minute Nadler gets out of the race. Among the names in the mix are Assemblymembers Micah Lasher, Alex Bores and Rebecca Seawright, City Council Members Erik Bottcher and Julie Menin and state Sen. Brad Hoylman-Sigal.

“Jerry has godlike status in the district,” Lasher said.

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