Cameron Kasky, who survived the Parkland, Florida mass capturing in 2018, launched his bid for New York’s twelfth Congressional District on Tuesday, Nov. 18, 2025.
Picture courtesy of Kasky for Congress
Cameron Kasky, a survivor of the 2018 mass capturing at a Parkland, FL highschool, on Tuesday grew to become the most recent candidate to launch a bid for retiring Rep. Jerry Nadler’s Congressional seat.
He introduced his candidacy in a video posted on social media on Nov. 18, by which he highlighted a platform that champions common healthcare, abolishes Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and prevents gun violence.
The younger candidate mentioned he would vote in opposition to persevering with to ship army help to Israel within the wake of its struggle in Gaza, which was ignited by Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist assault on, and invasion of, the Jewish state that left greater than 1,200 lifeless and greater than 250 folks held hostage.
Kasky seems to be positioning himself as a progressive candidate within the Democratic major to switch Nadler, the 74-year-old consultant of the twelfth Congressional District overlaying a lot of central Manhattan. He urged he was working for Congress “because there’s no real path forward for most Americans.”
“You and your family are working all week just to spend most of your paycheck on rent and health care,” he says within the video, which exhibits him strolling the streets of the Higher East Aspect. “Meanwhile, the richest people in our country are telling us that we can’t afford solutions like social housing and Medicare for All.”
Kasky joins an more and more crowded subject working for the twelfth District seat that features Higher West Aspect Meeting Member Micah Lasher, Chelsea and Hell’s Kitchen Metropolis Council Member Erik Bottcher, Higher East Aspect Meeting Member Alex Bores, and Jack Schlossberg — President John F. Kennedy’s grandson.
Kasky additionally recounted his journey of stepping into politics due to the mass capturing, saying the incident didn’t occur “in spite of the American system, it happened because of it.”
“But out of that tragedy, my classmates and I were able to get millions of people all across the country to take to the streets and call for real change,” Kasky mentioned of the March for Our Lives motion.
He pointed to his expertise of asking then-Florida U.S. Sen., and now Secretary of State, Marco Rubio if he would reject cash from the Nationwide Rifle Affiliation (NRA) shortly after the Parkland capturing in 2018. Rubio finally didn’t say he would not settle for NRA donations.
After graduating from Parkland, Kasky enrolled at Columbia College in 2019, bringing him to New York Metropolis. He lived in Morningside Heights for 2 years earlier than relocating to Chelsea.
Like lots of these already working for Nadler’s seat, Kasky is pitching himself as a part of a brand new era of aspiring lawmakers looking for to take the Democratic Get together in a unique course. That seems to be according to Nadler’s needs, provided that the 32-year Congressional veteran mentioned he isn’t working for reelection to make means for contemporary blood.
