The District 12 Candidate Nobody Is Talking About |
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The District 12 Candidate Nobody Is Talking About
“Our democracy is in deep trouble,” says Nina Schwalbe, “from vaccines to abortion to science, to SNAP, to rule of law.”
Congressional District 12 candidate Nina Schwalbe participates with fellow Democrats Jack Schlossberg, Micah Lasher, and George Conway in a public forum moderated by Rabbi Ammiel Hirsch at Stephen Wise Free Synagogue in New York City on May 6. 2026.
I wasn’t going to write about Nina Schwalbe. As you may or may not know, she’s the global health expert and scientist running for Jerry Nadler’s fabled seat in Manhattan’s 12th Congressional District. (Long focused around the Upper West Side, the district now includes the more conservative Upper East Side.) If you live uptown, you might have run into her chatting with voters at a neighborhood Greenmarket or in front of Zabar’s, or seen one of her posters in a storefront window. But she’s gotten little media attention and few endorsements. She’s right down there with Laura Dunn, the civil liberties lawyer backed by the National Organization for Women who is the other low-profile woman running for the slot.
What made me curious about Schwalbe, and also, to be frank, enraged on her behalf, was a long cover story in New York magazine. The cover, which announced, “The Next Mr. Manhattan,” featured photos of the four top candidates—Micah Lasher, Alex Bores, George Conway, and Jack Schlossberg—squished together in a van, looking very pleased with themselves. Schwalbe was not mentioned once. It’s true that the men’s campaigns are swarming with volunteers and staffers, and are lavishly funded—Lasher has over a million from Michael Bloomberg, Bores more than that from tech- and crypto-bros. All four are also the object of much punditry and polling, with many endorsements from prominent people. I get glossy mailers from Bores and Lasher practically every day, and endless extremely........