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Rep. Jerry Nadler, 78, a leading liberal figure for the Democratic Party in Congress, will not seek reelection next year after more than three decades representing New York.
His plans were confirmed Monday by a person familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak directly to the media. Nadler's impending departure was first reported by the New York Times.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-New York) said in a statement that Nadler would be missed, citing his work as a "legendary" chairman of the House Judiciary Committee and fighter for progressive causes.
As head of the committee from 2019 to 2023, Nadler helped lead two impeachment efforts against President Donald Trump, a longtime adversary with whom he has clashed since Nadler was a New York State Assembly member and Trump was a real estate developer in the 1980s.
"For nearly five decades in public service, Congressman Jerry Nadler has been a relentless fighter for justice, civil rights and liberties and the fundamental promise of equality for all," Jeffries said.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts), an ally of Nadler's, called him "a man of principle" in a statement posted on social media Monday. "I'm deeply grateful for his years of public service," she added.
Nadler told the New York Times he was stepping down to make room for younger candidates. "Watching the Biden thing really said something about the necessity for generational change in the party, and I think I want to respect that," he said.
The Democratic Party has faced criticism that it is too dominated by an older generation of leaders unable to connect with the concerns of younger voters.
This year, Nadler was among the first Democrats to endorse New York mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, 33, after the democratic socialist won the Democratic primary.
In a statement Monday, Mamdani praised Nadler's record: "Jerry stood alongside gay and trans Americans when it was politically unpopular, voted with courage - not calculus - against the Iraq War and the Patriot Act, stood steadfast alongside the first responders and families sickened after 9/11, and led efforts to hold a lawless Trump administration accountable."
Nadler was raised in an Orthodox Jewish household in Brooklyn. After high school, he attended Columbia University and Fordham Law School and was one of the founders of an organization known as the "West Side Kids," which protested the Vietnam War and won low-level Democratic Party posts, The Washington Post reported.
His political career began in 1976 as an assembly member representing New York City's Upper West Side, where he still lives. Nadler was elected to Congress in 1992, where he introduced legislation including bills codifying marriage equality and protecting pregnant workers from discrimination.
Nadler calls himself among Israel's staunchest supporters in the House. He has long backed the two-state solution and has criticized Israel's ongoing war in Gaza.
His retirement will open up a Democratic primary in New York's 12th Congressional District, which he won last year with more than 80 percent of the vote. The district, among the wealthiest in the country, incorporates Manhattan's Upper West Side, Upper East Side and Midtown areas.
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