AMY GOODMAN: It’s Election Day here in the U.S. We begin the show looking at some of the key races.

Voters in New Jersey and Virginia are casting their ballots for governor.

Meanwhile, voters in California will weigh in on a new set of congressional maps backed by Governor Gavin Newsom that could give Democrats a five-seat advantage in Congress. The ballot initiative, known as Prop 50, is a response to the GOP-led Texas state Legislature passing congressional maps earlier this year that would enable Republicans to pick up five additional seats in the House of Representatives.

In statewide races, voters will choose three seats on Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court. Legislative chambers in New Jersey and Virginia, Minnesota, Mississippi and Washington could all potentially flip control.

This comes as dozens of cities are voting on mayoral races, including Detroit, Minneapolis and Seattle. Perhaps the closest-watched mayoral race in the country is right here in New York City, where Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani is running against former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and Republican Curtis Sliwa to succeed outgoing Mayor Eric Adams. Billionaire Elon Musk is urging voters to vote for Cuomo, writing on X, quote, “Bear in mind that a vote for Curtis is really a vote for Mumdumi or whatever his name is,” clearly intentionally mocking Mamdani’s name. President Trump is also throwing his support behind Cuomo and has threatened to restrict federal funds for New York City if Mamdani wins. Mamdani responded Monday night.

ZOHRAN MAMDANI: But I want to take a moment to speak about who is on the ballot tonight. Donald Trump just put out a statement encouraging New Yorkers, saying they must vote for Andrew Cuomo. We know, and have known for months, that Donald Trump would favor Andrew Cuomo as the mayor. They share the same donors. They share the same small vision. They share the same sense of impunity. And yet, in these final days, what was rumored, what was feared, has become naked and unabashed. The MAGA movement’s embrace of Andrew Cuomo is reflective of Donald Trump’s understanding that this would be the best mayor for him, not — not the best mayor for New York City, not the best mayor for New Yorkers, but the best mayor for Donald Trump and his administration.

AMY GOODMAN: For more, we’re joined by John Nichols, executive editor of The Nation, where he was previously the national affairs correspondent and Washington, D.C., correspondent. His new piece is headlined “Bernie Sanders Says a Mamdani Win Can Transform American Politics,” unquote. John Nichols is the author of many books, including The Rise and Rise of Richard B. Cheney: Unlocking the Mysteries of the Most Powerful Vice President in American History, which we’ll talk about in a minute, upon the death of Dick Cheney. But first we look at the races around the country, beginning with Zohran Mamdani.

You have this exclusive interview with Bernie Sanders, who says that this is the key race. Talk about what’s happening in New York now with President Trump endorsing his opponent — again, Mamdani is the Democratic nominee, won the Democratic primary — and followed by Elon Musk endorsing Andrew Cuomo, as well.

JOHN NICHOLS: Look, whether you are a Republican or a Democrat, progressive or a conservative, a democratic socialist or whatever might be on the other side, Zohran Mamdani has captured the imagination of the country. I’ve been — I’ve traveled a lot around the U.S. in recent weeks, and when I mention Mamdani in rural towns in Wisconsin or, you know, in California, wherever, there’s excitement. There’s interest. People want to hear about him. They want to talk about him. And so, it is not surprising that Donald Trump and Elon Musk and others have focused in on this race.

This is the largest city in the United States. It is a city that, again, in many ways, captures the imagination of the country and the world. And the candidate who is leading in the polls at this point is the Democratic nominee, in a very Democratic city, is a 34-year-old Uganda-born Muslim democratic socialist. And so, by almost any measure, this is someone who opens up new vistas for our politics, who suggests how we might have a very different politics ideologically and, frankly, in the character and quality of communications that’s related to an office. Mamdani has proven to be a brilliant communicator and someone who is able to speak to issues that his own party has failed to speak to anywhere nearly as effectively as he does. And at the center of that is a message about putting a major city, and really, ultimately, putting the politics of the country, on the side of the working class, of people who are struggling to get by economically, and clearly aligning government with those who have not had a lot of power up to this point.

So, yes, this is a huge election in New York. As Bernie Sanders said, it could well define new directions for the Democratic Party and the country. And it also would be, if Mamdani wins tonight, be a blow to President Trump, because President Trump has tried so hard to prevent this man from becoming mayor of New York.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: John, I wanted to ask you — taking a more historical perspective on this, while I agree with you that the Mamdani campaign is really electrifying, it’s not the first time that we’ve had someone who claims to be a democratic socialist running. Fiorello La Guardia was a democratic socialist. People forget that David Dinkins, when he ran for mayor, was a member of Democratic Socialists of America. And so, these firsts have occurred previously. The question is: What would be the systemic change that could possibly come from Mamdani capturing the New York City mayoralty?

JOHN NICHOLS: Sure, you’re absolutely right, Juan. There’s a lot of history. And as you and I know, as being friends for a very long time, I’ve written a lot about this over the years. I come from Wisconsin, and in my native state of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, through much of the 20th century, had Socialist Party mayors, and they were very effective mayors. In fact, they’re looked back on with great fondness because of how well they governed. And so, one thing that we have to remember is that socialists have been established in this country as effective mayors in many, many cities, in Milwaukee and other cities. And yes, there is this legacy in New York City, which Zohran Mamdani has embraced. He talks a lot about Fiorello La Guardia. He talks a lot about others who came before him.

And the shift that would occur now, what is significant is that in deciding to run for mayor about roughly a year ago, Zohran Mamdani did something that I think too few political figures do. He actually analyzed what was — what was on people’s minds, what was really worrying them, what they saw as the fundamental challenges in their lives. And he came to an argument about affordability, the simple ability to get by in what is a very expensive city. And so he went to practical moves that people could understand very easily. He didn’t have to go to some big policy paper. He wants to have fast and free buses so you can get to work or get to where you need to go. He wants to freeze the rent in a city where it’s becoming very, very hard to get by and very, very hard to pay for your place. He wants to have universal child care and child education. He wants to fund education in all sorts of ways. And he wants to go even into, you know, some more fundamental challenges of people living in some parts of New York, where we have what are described as food deserts, and he talks about the idea of opening municipally run grocery stores to make sure that people have safe and healthy food. None of these are radical proposals. These are all proposals that can practically be done in New York City.

Now, there’s no question: Donald Trump will seek to make that dramatically harder by holding up funds and with a host of other initiatives. The state of New York will become a challenge. There are hoops that have to be jumped through, barriers that have to be broken down.

But Mamdani has a vision for how to do this. He can do some of it as mayor. He can do some of it in collaboration with New York state. And then, ultimately, you ask about how this will work. I think that — I’ve interviewed Mamdani about this, and along with Katrina vanden Heuvel, our editor at The Nation. And what he is very conscious of is that he broke through the barriers within the Democratic Party because of his ability to communicate, because of his skills at reaching out to people and talking to them where they live in about issues that they really care about. He will continue to do that as mayor.

And so, I think we’re going to see a very different kind of mayoralty, a mayor who really does seek to rally the people of the city, in a way that perhaps we haven’t seen since La Guardia was mayor. And remember, just as Zohran Mamdani has mastered social media in this area — in this era, La Guardia mastered radio and was an incredibly skilled communicator and also somebody who was very active throughout the city. And I think anybody who’s watched the current campaign knows that Mamdani has been almost unimaginably active in going to every part of the city, showing up where people are, and doing it with an openness that I do think draws people in. So I think he has the potential —

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: John, John —

JOHN NICHOLS: — to be a [inaudible].

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: John, if you could just talk briefly also about two other mayoral races that are occurring today, Seattle and Minneapolis?

JOHN NICHOLS: Yes. Both of these cities have candidates who are — who have been compared with Mamdani: Omar Fateh in Minneapolis, Katie Wilson in Seattle. And the thing to understand about what’s happening in municipal politics across the country, I think, is that we are seeing in our cities, in this era of Donald Trump, in this era of power politics coming out of Washington — we’re seeing that our cities are often the places that are, A, targeted by Trump on many issues, but also places where there is an ability to create a different politics, different approach to governing.

And so, there are, in both Seattle and in Minneapolis, candidacies that, like in New York, challenge not just the Republican Party as we know it, but also, in many senses, challenge the Democratic Party and say that the Democratic Party can be an activist party that uses government to really tip the balance in favor of the working class, in favor of people who have been targeted by Trump, and doesn’t just seek to defend them, but seeks to make their lives better.

So, yes, tonight we’re going to watch races across the country. And those aren’t the only ones. We could go into smaller cities and other places across —

AMY GOODMAN: And then there’s the governor’s race, John —

JOHN NICHOLS: — this country. Our politics in America [inaudible] —

AMY GOODMAN: We only have two minutes on this segment. There’s the governors’ races in both Virginia and New Jersey.

JOHN NICHOLS: Yes, both of those states are real traditional battlegrounds in an off-year election. In each of those states, you have women running to become governor, Democratic nominees, who are more moderate. I think that’s true of Abigail Spanberger and also Mikie Sherrill. But they have run against Trump, in many senses. They have sought to suggest that if they are elected, they will battle against many of the cuts that come from the federal level.

Now, in New Jersey, they have a Democratic governor now, so if the Democrat wins there, it will be continuity. But in Virginia, they have a Republican governor. If the Republican wins — or, if the Democrat wins in Virginia, that’s flipping a major state. And I think, again, if you start to see this pattern across the country — not saying it will happen, we have to watch the results. But if you see this pattern of Democrats winning in a lot of places, that’s clearly a message to Donald Trump.

AMY GOODMAN: And you’re in San Francisco right now, John Nichols. We just have 30 seconds on Prop 50. And then, of course, we’ll talk more about all these races tomorrow after the results are in. Prop 50?

JOHN NICHOLS: Sure. Yeah, Prop 50 is an effort by Gavin Newsom and Democrats in California to offset what Donald Trump did in — pressured Texas to do, which is flip five traditionally Republican seats toward the — or, traditionally Democratic seats toward the Republicans. California is seeking to do the reverse of that. This is the beginning, not the end, of gerrymandering and redistricting wars that we’re going to see all over the country. And it is evidence of the great battle for control of Congress in 2026. The one thing to, I think, take away is that all evidence in California is that Prop 50 is doing very, very well and that voters actually get what is at stake here, that this is an opportunity to push back against Donald Trump.

AMY GOODMAN: John Nichols is executive editor of The Nation. When we come back, we’ll talk with him about the death of former Vice President Dick Cheney, whom many call the most powerful vice president in U.S. history. Stay with us.

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AMY GOODMAN: “Do You Believe in Rapture?” by Thurston Moore, performing at Smith College years ago.