Councilmember Erik Bottcher drops bid for Nadler’s House seat to run for State Senate

New York City Councilman Erik Bottcher is dropping his bid to succeed U.S. Rep. Jerrold Nadler in Congress to instead run for an open State Senate seat, he announced on Monday.

“This decision is rooted in where I believe I can do the most good immediately,” Bottcher wrote in a statement. “The State Senate is where critical decisions are being made on housing affordability, addressing the mental health crisis, safeguarding our environment, and defending New York from the Trump agenda.”

Bottcher will run to succeed another Manhattan elected, State Sen. Brad Hoylman-Sigal, who is vacating his seat on Jan. 1st to take his post as the Manhattan Borough President. Hoylman-Sigal’s inauguration will kickstart a special election for the West Side Senate district.

Bottcher was one of at least nine candidates who filed to run for Nadler’s Congressional seat, stretching from the East to West Side of Central Manhattan, after the 78-year-old incumbent announced that he would not run for reelection next year.

The packed field has attracted a number of strong contenders, including Nadler’s mentee and onetime aide Assemblymember Micah Lasher, fellow Manhattan Assemblymember and former software engineer Alex Bores and the Kennedy heir and media personality Jack Schlossberg, among others. 

Bottcher, the co-chair of the City Council’s LGBTQIA+ Caucus, raised nearly $700,000 in the first 24 hours of announcing his candidacy for the congressional run.

Once Hoylman-Sigal officially vacates his seat, Gov. Kathy Hochul will call for a special election that will take place in the months following. In state special elections, instead of a primary, political parties select their nominees through an internal process, so if Bottcher can secure the nomination he is all but guaranteed to win the election in the heavily Democratic district.

Manhattan Assemblymembers Linda Rosenthal and Tony Simone had also been toying with a run for the Senate seat, as City & State reported, but the process has been driven by a sense of “collegiality” among the area’s Democratic lawmakers.

In addition to his perch as co-chair of the Council’s LGBTQIA+ Caucus, Bottcher has built a reputation as a mental health advocate, leading the effort to create on-site mental health services in family shelters and provide suicide prevention resources in schools. 

“Public service is not about climbing a ladder,” Bottcher wrote. “It is about showing up, doing the work, and delivering concrete results that make a difference in people’s lives. That is why I am running.”