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Kasky drops out of NYC congressional race, aims to stop ‘settler violence’

The 25-year-old suddenly switched gears to work on “West Bank human-rights legislation” with California Rep. Ro Khanna.

Cameron Kasky
Cameron Kasky at the “Rally to Support Firearm Safety Legislation” in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., on Feb. 17, 2018, just days after a mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., on Feb. 14, 2018. Credit: Barry Stock/BSTK7204/Flickr via Wikimedia Commons.

Cameron Kasky, a Jewish Democrat and student survivor of a mass school shooting in Parkland, Fla., in February 2018, who was running for Congress in New York’s 12th Congressional District on an anti-Israel platform, announced on Wednesday that he has dropped out of the Democratic primary.

While the 25-year-old’s fundraising numbers are not yet publicly available, prediction market Polymarket has tracked the NY-12 Democratic nomination as a competitive multi-candidate race, predicting his odds at 13%.

In an announcement posted to X on Jan. 14, Kasky wrote: “Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. Columbia University. Folks, I’m so sorry. I have to drop out of one more thing,” adding that he “returned from Palestine with one concern: What can we do to stop the settler violence in the West Bank?”

JNS previously reported on his Palestinian-led trip to Israel.

“It’s the honor of my life to be talking out of this race with the chance to do what must be done,” he wrote, followed by a post noting that he is now working on a “West Bank human-rights emergency plan” with Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.).

“Beyond a return to activism, more specifically, my focus is on introducing comprehensive West Bank human-rights legislation, which Rep. Khanna’s office is working on as we speak,” Kasky said.

Khanna stated that “we will work together to bring justice and peace.”

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