50 Ways to Leave Your Legislator

Alissa, Mike, and Rachel break down last week’s election results and some major progressive victories. Zohran Mamdani is the new democratic socialist mayor of New York City! Prop 50 passes, temporarily redrawing California’s districts! And a blue wave produces downballot wins nationwide! What does it all mean for LA politics as our 2026 election cycle kicks into gear? Plus, surveying the state’s gerontocracy as 85-year-old Nancy Pelosi announces her retirement.

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SHOW NOTES

Alissa, Mike, and Rachel break down last week’s election results and some major progressive victories. Zohran Mamdani is the new democratic socialist mayor of New York City! Prop 50 passes, temporarily redrawing California’s districts! And a blue wave produces downballot wins nationwide! What does it all mean for LA politics as our 2026 election cycle kicks into gear? Plus, surveying the state’s gerontocracy as 85-year-old Nancy Pelosi announces her retirement.

Zohran Mamdani wins New York City’s mayoral election: watch his victory speech

New York City saw turnout that was the highest since the 1969 mayoral race. Over 1 million votes were cast for Mamdani, even with fewer eligible voters — the electorate has shrunk to 5.3 million from 5.6 million four years ago

Alissa thought this clip of Jamaal Bowman at Mamdani’s victory party was the exact right sentiment

Contrary to pundit belief, socialism has been a part of New York City’s political fabric over the years, but as Mamdani takes power, the stakes are high. Luckily he has an outstanding all-women transition team

Here in California, Prop 50 passed easily, temporarily redrawing the state’s Congressional districts. Here’s what happens next

Prop 50 turnout is 38.6 percent so far, matching the Gavin Newsom recall election from 2021(another odd-numbered year election)

Yes on Prop 50 leads by 28 points, 64 percent to 36 percent. Kamala Harris won the state in 2024 by only 20 points, writes the New York Times’ Nate Cohn in “Why Democrats Could Win the Redistricting War”

What about LA? Watch and share Mike’s video on our Zohran Mamdani moment

Mayoral candidate Austin Beutner is trying to hit Karen Bass on affordability but he isn’t presenting his own solutions for making the city more affordable. Meanwhile, as we discussed last week, housing justice leader Rae Huang is going to declare her candidacy soon. Still not sure about Rick Caruso, who is going to make a decision about mayor or governor in the next few weeks

85-year old Nancy Pelosi announced she will not seek re-election

“The challenge for Democrats is to wrest control from the gnarled grip of gerontocracy while containing the chaos that will naturally ensue from younger politicians who are mad as hell at their own party,” writes New York Magazine’s Rebecca Traister in “It’s My Party and I’ll Leave When I Want To“

Many young progressives who won aren’t being talked about as much this week, like Michelle Wu, who ran unopposed for her second term as mayor of Boston (maybe she should have been quoted as one of the mayors giving advice to Mamdani)

Progressive prosecutors still notched big wins coast-to-coast

Catch upcoming interviews with Council District 9 candidates on Mike's show What's Next, Los Angeles?

This episode was produced by Sophie Bridges

The reporting and analysis you hear in the show is put together by our rotating cast of producers and co-hosts every week. All opinions expressed on the show are solely those of co-hosts and may not represent the views of LA Forward

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