On November 2nd, Jen Psaki hosted a pre-election “Blueprint” special live on MSNBC. She spoke with Jen Palmieri, former communications director for Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, Pennsylvania state representative Malcom Kenyatta, New York City comptroller Brad Lander, and more about two governor races in New Jersey and Virginia, state Supreme Court races in Pennsylvania, and the mayoral election in New York City. Plus, Prop 50, the redistricting proposal out to voters in California. It might be an off year, but there is a ton going on. And a lot of it has implications for the 2026 midterms. Listen here to an audio version of that TV special so you can have the most up-to-date news and analysis from around the country as voters head to the polls this week.
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NOTE: This is a rough transcript. Please excuse any typos.
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Jen Psaki: Hi, it’s Jen Psaki. And this is The Blueprint. On Sunday night, I hosted a pre-election special live on MSNBC. We dug into what to expect in a bunch of races, including the two governor’s races in New Jersey and Virginia, Prop 50 out in California, the New York City mayoral election, state Supreme Court races in Pennsylvania and a whole lot more. It might be an off year, but there’s a ton going on. And a lot of this news has implications for the 2026 midterms. We wanted to make the special available to our podcast listeners so that you all have the most up to date news and analysis from around the country as many people head to the polls on Tuesday. I’ll be back in your feed on Wednesday with a special results episode of The Blueprint. Featuring of course my friend and Democratic strategist, Lis Smith, but this week we’ll be joined by Obama and Kamala Harris advisor, David Plouffe. So, without further ado, our pre-election special, which originally aired on November 2nd.
Okay. If you’re wondering why I’m here on a Sunday night, if you’re wondering why we’re calling this show The Blueprint and not the briefing and why we have this fabulous backdrop with us right now, it’s because there’s an election in two days. And for the past few weeks, I’ve been having a great time really doing season two of my podcast, The Blueprint, where we talk about the future of the Democratic Party and how Democrats can win again. And we felt like with so many hugely important races on Tuesdays, we on this Tuesday, I should say, we wanted to bring that conversation here for a special hour on MSNBC. I am so grateful you all are here with us. We are going to give you updates on all these races, you know exactly what to expect. And we’re going to talk about a lot of the big questions of this election. Like what we should expect out of New Jersey, where Democrat Mikie Sherill is trying to hold on right now in a state where Trump lost by less than six points a year ago. And what we can expect out of Virginia, where the Democratic candidate for governor of Abigail Spanberger has a big lead, but where controversy down the ballot is a big test for the attorney general’s race. There’s also legislative races in that state as well.
And just how big will the vote against Trump being California, where democratic voters hope to deliver their first big counterpunch in the ongoing fight over redistricting by passing Prop 50 by a large margin. That’s what they want. And is there anything that can stop the momentum of democratic socialist phenom, Zohran Mamdani as he looks to become the youngest mayor of America’s largest city in more than a hundred years.
So, this is the final push. It’s happening. It’s been happening. Voters are voting. They have been voting. Elections are happening on Tuesday. And as both parties make their final pitch to voters, Republicans have the added challenge of trying to overcome the Trump factor, which is more in these races of a sinking anchor than anything else. I mean, in many ways, he is perhaps the best driver of turnout for Democrats. As Jonathan Martin writes for Politico magazine this weekend, quote, “the most revealing element of next week’s election is that President Donald Trump is all but ensuring defeat for Republicans and his party is doing next to nothing about it.” We’re going to dig into all of that and what it means.
Now in New Jersey, Trump is trying to punish blue state voters by canceling an important infrastructure project and hurting Garden State Republicans closing day message in the process. In Virginia, Trump has laid off thousands of federal workers and his government shutdown has led to long lines at food banks, just as voters start heading to the polls. In California, Trump hasn’t lifted a finger to help the laggard (ph) Golden State Republicans in their uphill battle against Gavin Newsom’s well-funded campaign in support of Prop 50. And in New York, Trump’s tacit embrace of independent candidate Andrew Cuomo has handed Zohran Mamdani a common enemy to help unite his fractured party.
And if that wasn’t enough, and that is plenty, Trump spent the final weekend before the election holding, I mean, you seriously can’t make this step up, a lavish Great Gatsby themed party at Mar-a-Lago for Halloween. And I mean, this thing, you can see it on your screen right now. That is actual footage of it. This thing looked like a roaring twenties masterclass of elitist disconnection, and they hosted this party just as 42 million Americans were about to lose access to their SNAP food benefits. So, as Democrats look to make this election all about affordability, which has been a big message, even from very different candidates and very different campaigns, Trump and his underlings are literally partying like Gilded Age royalty, while planning for the building of a tacky and expensive White House ballroom. And that tone deaf message from the leader of the Republican Party of which he still is, is giving top Democratic surrogates exactly the kind of closing message they need right now.
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Barack Obama: As for the president, he has been focused on critical issues like paving over the Rose Garden so folks don’t get mud on their shoes and gold plating the Oval Office and building a 300 million ballroom. So, Virginia, here’s the good news. If you can’t visit a doctor, don’t worry, he will save you a dance.
The economy has been really good for some of Trump’s billionaire friends, and it’s been good for some finance bros and well-connected corporations who’ve seen their tax bill go down and don’t have to worry about all those pesky regulators anymore. But for ordinary fans, for you, your neighbors, your friends, costs have not gone down. They’ve gone up. And if you don’t get an invitation to the next White House shindy, you can always watch the festivities on Trump’s live feed on Truth Social.
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Jen Psaki: I mean, I worked for him for 10 years, I feel like he had some things to get off his chests there more to come. Now, of course, one of the big takeaways from Tuesday’s election is going to be what this all means for the midterms one year from now. But even before any of the polls have closed in these early bellwether races, we’re already seeing early signs of some momentum for Democrats.
Today, a brand-new NBC News poll finds that voters prefer a Democrat controlled Congress to a Republican controlled Congress by an eight-point margin. And that is notably similar to what that same poll found at this point in Trump’s first term when Democrats held a seven-point margin over Republicans just one year before Democrats swept the midterms and took back the House. And with record early voting turnout in places like New York and Virginia, it looks like voters are more than engaged, more engaged than they have been in years. Months for sure, but they’re quite engaged.
So, what we learn on Tuesday night, what could we see as a surprise? What are we watching for? Just how big a driver will Donald Trump’s disastrous presidency be in races where he isn’t on the ballot? That’s a big question. What does it all mean for the control of power in Congress one year from now? I have the perfect people to ask who I’m so grateful they’re here with me on a Sunday evening. Joining me, our former White House communications advisor to President Obama, Jennifer Palmieri, director at the University of Virginia’s Center of Politics, Larry Sabato, and Anthony Coley, who is a veteran of New Jersey politics and former spokesperson at the Department of Justice. All right, Palmieri, I’m going to start with you. Because I know that these are local races and they were run in many local ways and we should talk about that. But there’s also this big national context, and I’ve shared that NBC poll today that’s out, showing that Democrats have an eight-point edge on the generic ballot. They also have a seven-point enthusiasm edge, which I think is an interesting number two. I mean, polls, obviously they only tell us so much. But tell me kind of what metrics are you looking for as we go into Tuesday, because Tuesday is about Tuesday and the outcomes, but it’s also about where the Democratic Party is right now and where the electorate is.
Jen Palmieri: So, I think, you know, one thing sort of already been decided, which is because I think that Mamdani is going to win. I think Mikie Sherrill is going to win. I think Abigail Spanberger is going to win in Virginia, which is, can Democrats attract candidates in places that people are excited about, right. And all three jurisdictions there, they were able to do that. So that’s good. Right? Can you recruit talent? Can you recruit talent that people are excited to turn out and vote for?
And then the other thing is just, what is the vote? Jersey had a record setting in the primary, the people that turned out for the gubernatorial primary, that was a record. It was 60 percent increase at Richmond (Ph) what happened in 2017, which was also a record. So that was just what I would just technically describe as bonkers turnout and I know that the early vote is looking very good. You know, that is also high. And just seeing if this trend continues, as we’ve seen with special elections, that Democrats are really turning out and then, you know, that’s the most important thing to look for, for what it means for ‘26.
Jen Psaki: Larry Sabato, let me turn to you. I mean, you have covered so many elections, you have your crystal ball of course, which we can all look at. But let me ask you about Virginia, because these races has national implications. People will digest them and figure out what they mean for a year from now, but there are also local issues or issues that have local significance. So, I want to ask you about the government shutdown and kind of, as you look at the races that are going to happen on Tuesday, what impact do you feel it’s going to have? It feels like it’s going to have a more significant impact on Virginia than other races given the electorate and given the federal workforce, but how do you see that as a factor, and tell us a little bit more about what you’re watching for Tuesday?
Larry Sabato: Well, there’s no question. The shutdown is a big factor in Virginia as it is in other states, but the federal workforce in Virginia is quite large, particularly Northern Virginia, but also Hampton Roads, which is often a swing area and the Richmond area as well. And in all those places, if you spend any time there, you’ll run across a lot of very angry voters. Most of whom will not admit to having defected at Trump. And of course, Harris carried Virginia by about six points. But they’re very unhappy and unhappy voters tend to vote. They’re going to turn out whether it’s early or on election day.
So, every indication we see here is that Democrats should win. Now they might not win the attorney general’s race, although surprisingly, that’s still in contention, which I think at first, when those unfortunate texts emerged from the Democratic nominee for attorney general, few people thought it would be competitive. Well, it is, because Spanberger, if the surveys are correct, both internal and the ones that are published by nonpartisan groups, if they’re accurate, she’s winning by upper single digits and even low double digits. That may be enough to pull all of the ticket in including, and this is really important. All hundred members of the House of Delegates are on the ballot. And you may have read something about Virginia jumping into the redistricting battle. Well, it matters if you have a larger majority in the House of Delegates, it’s currently 51-49. It’s very close. There are people projecting that Democrats will have 55 to 60 seats in the House of Delegates that may or may not be true, but I think they will certainly pick up seats.
So, all of these pieces fit together. You always look at the margins. That’s what I always look for. If you want to know something that might last for a year and a year is a long time in the Trump era, but if you want to look for something that might last, you want to see big margins and they may be coming in Virginia. I don’t know about New Jersey, I think less so there, and New York, we’ll see, but Virginia may supply the most positive news for Democrats outside of Proposition 50 in California.
Jen Psaki: Yes, it’s interesting. Those text messages became a big story, obviously, and in the governor’s race, they also tried to tie them to Abigail Spanberger, and they were not successful. All right, Anthony Coley, let me ask you about New Jersey. You’ve worked in New Jersey. You’ve spent a lot of time doing politics there. It’s a different race in Virginia to state the obvious, the margin looks closer in the polls right now. Also, it seems like Ciattarelli is running as a Glenn Youngkin type of wolf in a sweater vest, or something like that campaign. Tell us about what you’re expecting there, what you’re watching and it’s a state. The last thing I’m going to add. I noted this earlier. Trump only lost it by six points.
Anthony Coley: Right.
Jen Psaki: So, it feels like one of the things when you’re talking to people in the hallway, they’re a little bit more nervous about if you’re a Democrat.
Anthony Coley: So, I have been on the phone all weekend talking to politicos up and down the state in New Jersey. And so the overwhelming consensus is that she is on track to win. What I am hearing on the ground.
Jen Psaki: Mikie Sherrill.
Anthony Coley: Mikie Sherrill. What I’m hearing on the ground is that they expect, if the model holds, the victory to be anywhere from four to eight points and that’s with an asterisk, right? There are two things that the on-the-ground politicos are focused on here. The first is unaffiliated voters. Larry Sabato knows this well. But in New Jersey, the unaffiliated voting population is roughly a third of the electorate. We’re talking two million voters. And people just don’t have a firm grasp right now of how many of those folks are actually going to show up.
The other thing that I heard, Jen, and I know you and Palmieri have always been focused on gender issues. Gender is a factor here. Now, New Jersey of course has already had a Republican female.
Jen Psaki: How so? Tell us more about what you mean by that?
Anthony Coley: Right. Christine Todd Whitman was the first —
Jen Psaki: Should be the second, Mikie Sherrill would be.
Anthony Coley: Mikie Sherrill would be. So, what I’m hearing on the ground is that her team is focused really on turning out traditional democratic male voters that may have a little unease, even though they don’t say that in polling with voting for a democratic female candidate. So, they’re watching that in the Mikie Sherrill campaign.
Jen Psaki: Yes, that’s an interesting, I haven’t heard that. That’s an interesting feedback and one to watch. Palmieri, let me bring you back into this. I mean, one of the things that has struck me about all these campaigns is that they’re all running. They’re running on affordability. They’re running on cost in different ways. They all have different solutions for it, but it’s an issue that they’ve all talked about. It feels to me kind of like a bit of a messaging shift in terms of the amount of time candidates are spending on a particular issue than it was a year ago. But what do you think and what do you think that tells us about kind of where things go from here after Tuesday?
Jen Palmieri: You know, it’s funny because in ‘22 it was a big issue, right? I know that a lot of the people that won. A lot of the governors that won, that won in ‘18 and then ran again in ‘22, particularly the ones in the Midwest, right. Whitmer, Pritzker, that’s the year that Shapiro was elected, Evers got reelected and that was a big issue with them, right. It was like, how can we lower costs? And then, you know, presidential election. I mean, obviously we had a, kind of a doozy of presidential campaign and issues. And, you know, the issues went much bigger. And I think that a lot of the Democrats that are running, you know, particularly with, Sherrill and Spanberger in Virginia, they have the benefit of the anger around Trump and what’s happening. You know, what kind of role the government is playing and how that field is very anti-American, they have the benefit of that, but they’re running on these issues that really, you know, affect people’s daily lives.
My husband is from New Jersey, we end up spending a lot of time there, you know, energy is such a huge issue. And that’s Mikie’s number one issues that she’s talking about is lowering utility costs. But it’s very low to the ground about what kind of issues people are experiencing. And the thing that I thought might happen that’s not happening because Trump did do relatively well in New Jersey in ‘24. And also, in 2021, this was sort of like when Biden had one of the lowest approval ratings. Phil Murphy was reelected, but it was relatively close. And I thought, you recalled Trump came to the Jersey shore in 2024, did a big rally there. I thought that he might be tempted to come into the state and there has never been any hint that he would actually do that. So, the sense that Jersey was becoming more MAGA doesn’t feel like it’s panning out.
Anthony Coley: Right.
Jen Psaki: Yes, go ahead, Anthony.
Anthony Coley: Well, what’s so interesting to me about the gubernatorial candidates in Virginia and New Jersey is that they’re bear hugging Donald Trump, and which is not really the formula to win. This is a man who has lost three times in both of these states, right? If you want to win an election, you don’t tend to bear hug the person who people are not fond of. So, you know, I just throw that in there. It’s just not the right formula here.
Jen Psaki: Larry Sabato, let me go to you. You’ve covered, I don’t even know how many elections, hundreds, dozens, hundreds.
Larry Sabato: I go back to the 50s.
Jen Psaki: Thousands?
Larry Sabato: I go back to the 1950s. I hate to admit it, but it’s true.
Jen Psaki: There you go. Give us something you’re watching you don’t think people are paying enough attention to on Tuesday.
Larry Sabato: Yes. By the way, I like that phrase, bear hugging, got to tell you that what’s interesting in Virginia is Trump has never actually formally endorsed the Republican candidate for governor.
Jen Psaki: Yes.
Larry Sabato: Never.
Anthony Coley: That’s right.
Larry Sabato: He hasn’t held any rallies for, I mean, it’s a very, very strange situation. I think it’s because he thinks she’s going to lose.
Jen Psaki: Yes.
Larry Sabato: And you know how he feels about losers. But one thing I want to point out because it isn’t given any attention or at least it hasn’t been so far. When the campaign began the first few months, the first ads appearing, the Republican Winsome Earle-Sears went heavy on the trans issue.
Jen Psaki: Yes.
Larry Sabato: I would say it was easily three quarters or more of her TV ads and digital advertisements. You know what? It hasn’t sold. It just it’s flagged out. It’s not like 2024 at all.
Jen Psaki: Yes.
Larry Sabato: So, every year is different. And one year you’ll have something that people think is powerful. And then the next year it flops.
Jen Psaki: That’s a good note to end on. This is such a good point. She only shifted when she started to try to drag Abigail Spanberger down on the text messages of the attorney general candidate, which became where she spent most of her time.
Jennifer Palmieri, Larry Sabato, Anthony Coley, thank you all for kicking us off tonight. I learned a lot of things. I appreciate you all. Thank you so much. Okay. We’re going to take a very quick break. And coming up, the names Donald Trump and Gavin Newsom might not be on the ballot on Tuesday. They are not, but they kind of are. And right now, Newsom isn’t just trying to win. He’s trying to run up the score. I’ve got a senior advisor for the Prop 50 campaign standing by, and he joins me in just 90 seconds.
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Jen Psaki: Feels like a lifetime ago, but it was only in mid-July that Trump called on Texas Republicans to rig their state’s congressional maps to try and hand Republicans more seats ahead of next year’s midterms. Now that decision of course sparked some valid outrage, a lot of valid outrage and set off a chain reaction. And now three and a half months later, we find ourselves days away from a special election where California voters will cast a yes or no ballot on whether they want to redraw their congressional maps to effectively counteract what Texas did. If Prop 50 passes on Tuesday, the message to Trump and Republicans will be loud and clear. Something that California’s Governor Gavin Newsom emphasized when he spoke today.
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Gavin Newsom: But we’re seeing overwhelming understanding recognition of what’s at stake. And remember, it’s Prop 50, because this impacts everyone watching in all 50 states. Donald Trump is an historic president, historically unpopular. He’s been very open and honest, including right outside the White House just last week saying incumbents are likely to lose the midterms. That’s why he called Greg Abbott. He is not screwing around. He’s changing the rules. He’s rigging the game because he knows he’ll lose if all things are equal. He did not expect California to fight fire with fire.
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Jen Psaki: Until he’s been talking a lot, because he’s losing his voice. But joining me now is Jim DeBoo, senior advisor to Governor Gavin Newsom and the Prop 50 campaign. Thank you so much for being here with me.
Let me start by asking you. It seems like everyone involved with Prop 50 is extremely confident right now, or is exuding a level of confidence about the outcome. And I spoke with Senator Alex Padilla about this on Friday night and he basically said, we want a big margin of victory. A big margin of victory is important because it sends an important message. And I want to raise this with you because when people hear confidence, sometimes they’re like, eh, I don’t need to get out and vote. Doesn’t really matter. But the margin matters or tell me if you agree and why.
Jim DeBoo: The margin definitely matters. But I think the biggest piece is for once in a long time, to me, at least Democrats are extremely excited to vote in an election and it’s really hard to counter all the public polling that shows that we’ve had this incredible movement from what actually started at about a 50-50 race. And I don’t want people that to be lost on people because when all the looking back on this race is done, I think people need to understand, especially democratic leaders, the swing that Governor Newsom and the congressional delegation took at a time when this wasn’t sure thing is really, really important to show nationally that people were fighting for them. So, the bigger the margin, the bigger the message, which is one, California cares about the rest of the country, and two, Democrats are back on their foot fighting.
Jen Psaki: Yes, that’s a big part of it. People are excited to turn. I mean, as of Saturday and tell me if there’s any updated numbers, but the ones we have is nearly six million ballots had been returned in this California special election. And that’s very, it seems very close to the turnout of the last California special election back in 2021, which was of course the failed attempt to recall Governor Newsom.
Let me just ask you, I mean you’ve talked to, you’ve been running this, you’ve been playing a huge role here. Part of this, it feels like of course enthusiasm about the possibility of redistricting and fighting back to what’s happening. But also, part of it feels like it’s sending a clear message to Trump. How do you see the breakdown and what do you hear from voters about the breakdown?
Jim DeBoo: I think it’s both and the other piece is it’s not just the democratic voters. If the margin is —
Jen Psaki: Yes.
Jim DeBoo: — in the double digits, this means that it was crossover vote as well. And I have just personal experience with a few of my friends who are Republicans who have said, I can’t continue to allow this to happen. So, the redistricting piece is really interesting, because as you know, you’ve been through these battles before, it’s kind of an archaic thing. People don’t know too much about how their districts appear and who they’re voting for and why, but this was not about maps. And had this been about maps, I think we’d be in a very different place. This was about trying to regain a separation of power. It’s about retaking the House. It’s about making sure that there’s a speaker Jeffries.
So, we have the opportunity and that’s what this is, this isn’t like what Trump is doing, where he’s just waving a magic wand and telling all of, kind of his little minions to go do his bidding. It’s about giving the people the ability to decide. And once they decide, which we do think is going to be a yes on election day, it gives us the opportunity to have that conversation with the American people to try to take back the House and then move on to the White House in 2028.
But I can tell you just from even our internal polling and you can steal it in our field numbers. We have 65,000 volunteers on this campaign. We are going to eclipse 42 million attempted contacts of California voters. So that’s, you know, multiple contacts in some cases, but the enthusiasm from people across the country who have volunteered that have come from all 50 states, shows that when you have something to fight for and you’re willing to go fight, that this is the beginning again, of the Democratic Party, becoming this powerful force again with all of its new leaders. And I think Tuesday is going to be the beginning of that nationally. I listened to the last panel and I do think the governor’s races in these other states and Prop 50 can serve as an example of how we get back on our front foot.
Jen Psaki: Yes. I also think that it’s going to put a lot of pressure on other blue state governors to do something and move forward with taking action in their states around redistricting to fight back. Let me ask you one more question. I mean, Politico, Jonathan Martin wrote this story for Politico this morning and he kind of laid out the Trump effect on Tuesday’s election. He specifically pointed out how all the president would have to do is make a handful of phone calls to his tech oligarch, friends, many of whom live in California and he could easily exceed the $97 million Newsom’s allies have raised. I would note that there’s a huge number of those that are from small dollar donors. You can give me the numbers exactly. But why do you think he didn’t really do that here?
Jim DeBoo: That’s a good question for Kevin McCarthy and for Mike Johnson and for Donald Trump, because they committed a hundred million dollars. They spend and are going to end up spending about $55 million, but I’ll give the opposite answer. There was a lot of tech folks in California and a lot of wealthy donors on the democratic side who had the courage to stand up and give to this campaign. And I don’t want that to be lost on folks. Reed Hastings, for example, from Netflix, he gave a contribution and was immediately attacked by the influencers and the Republican Party telling people to drop their Netflix accounts.
There are still people out there who live in this tech space who care about democracy. And I want that to be, you know, we’re kind of getting into this place where most of us are pretty cynical. The flip side of this is we actually built out a very, very broad coalition that included not only donors, but labor and Planned Parenthood and all of these other groups that came to help.
I do want to say this. We have really strict disclosure laws in California, so you can’t hide money. You can’t launder it the way that some other states try or some of these other groups try to do. People know, so whatever check you write in California, they’re going to see it. So again, it goes back to our donors, too. The people who gave to this campaign, they know that they’re a target and we should be proud of the fact that they stood up and wanted to fight back for what we’re trying to do here so we can have a shot at this race, the 2026 elections.
Jen Psaki: That’s a really interesting point. I guess people who want to give to Trump can hide the money in the ballroom. There we go. That’s their tip for them. Jim DeBoo, thank you so much. That was so informative. I really appreciate you being with us.
Jim DeBoo: Thanks so much.
Jen Psaki: Well, the race for mayor in New York City is ending just about as you would expect it to. Andrew Cuomo was on Fox News this morning reaching out to that audience by saying he’s willing to try cooperation with President Trump. Then there’s democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani who has campaigned overnight in recent days, visiting with taxi drivers at LaGuardia airport, a local hospital, where he talked with overnight workers. And he has also stopped at multiple nightclubs to rally some late-night revelers. There he is right there. Okay.
The 34-year-old Mamdani has brought appeal, youth and optimistic message have built plenty of momentum. Tons of it. Obviously, he’s the front runner far and away right now. And they got another boost this weekend. The New York Times reports that the former President, Obama, called Mamdani to offer his support, his praise and support. Now for a guy who does not as a policy endorse in mayor races, that’s Obama’s policy. That’s pretty endorsement adjacent. I guess I could call it.
Joining us now is Brad Lander, New York City Comptroller and Mamdani supporter. It’s great to see you. Thank you for taking the time. Let me just start. I mean, you ran against Mamdani, then you endorsed him. We all watched this take place. He’s energizing all these people. And now he even has former President Obama going about as far as he lets himself go in these sorts of circumstances, I can say. It’s been kind of a dumpster fire the last couple of days, how some people including Andrew Cuomo specifically have run their campaigns. What do you make of this phone call with President Obama? How much does it matter in these final days?
Brad Lander: Yes. Well look, I think President Obama like so many of us is caught up in the hopeful energy. This is such a sour time with Trump in the White House with Eric Adams having solid city hall in corruption. And with Andrew Cuomo running the sour, bitter, backward looking Fox News campaign, New Yorkers are hungry for some hope and Zohran is giving it to us, and even President Obama, I think is caught up in it.
Jen Psaki: It seems like it. I mean that again, I worked for him for 10 years. He’s like he always figures out a way to kind of send a message when he wants to send a message. Even if it’s not endorsement.
Brad Lander: Indeed.
Jen Psaki: It’s adjacent as I like to say. So let me ask you a little bit more about Andrew Cuomo’s strategy. I mean, it’s been pretty scorched earth in the closing days, he released this insane A.I. ad and including one with the computer generated Mamdani voice in a school house rock cartoon where Mamdani lights money on fire. It kind of seems like he’s trying to align himself with Trump and have Trump’s voters help him win. I mentioned his appearance of course on Fox News this morning. Tell me what you make of this, the whole strategy.
Brad Lander: Look, I mean, I honestly think his worst self is coming out down the stretch. He’s got nothing to offer. The fact that it’s been, that’s not the only one. There have been multiple scorched earth A.I. videos. He said diversity can be a bad thing in the city of New York. He’s fueling Islamophobia and just all he’s got is scare tactics. He’s got nothing positive to offer and he’s just running on fear and now A.I.-generated fear and that does ripple. As you say, it feels like a dumpster fire, but it’s not giving inspiring vision to anyone.
Jen Psaki: Let me ask you about one of the questions that, and I’ve asked him about this too. His support among Jewish voters. It’s generational, it seems some of the gaps, but it’s been something he’s been having to answer questions on and really working on through the course of the campaign.
You’ve endorsed him. Jerry Nadler has too, a prominent Hasidic rabbi announced his support for Mamdani today. And then there’s Chuck Schumer though, who ran away from the podium instead of answering whether he will, or won’t endorse Mamdani. Why do you think he’s such a holdout here? I can’t wrap my head around it really, but why do you think he’s such a holdout?
Brad Lander: I mean, look, on election night on the primaries Zohran committed to reach out to Jewish communities and I’ll tell you, I’ve seen it up close in-house parties in one-on-one meetings with rabbis with Jewish communal organizations. And no one that I can remember has spent this much time doing outreach. So anyone who has a reasonable bar to clear for him to show that he’s going to keep Jewish New Yorkers safe and make sure this continues to be an extraordinary Jewish city just like it’s a Muslim city and a Dominican city and everything else.
So, I don’t know. I think all democratic leaders should be out there supporting our nominee. It’s a big, broad party, but he’s showing one exciting way to fight for working people, to focus on affordability and give people hope in the future. And yes, it’s still a little time. I’d love to see Senator Schumer join.
Jen Psaki: He is tomorrow. If you’re out there, Senator Schumer, there you go. New York City Comptroller Brad Lander, thank you so much for joining me this evening.
Brad Lander: Great to be with you. Thank you.
Jen Psaki: Coming up, remember when Elon Musk, I try to forget this, but it did happen, put on a cheesehead and tried to sway Wisconsin Supreme Court race with million-dollar checks. Well, there’s an under-the-radar race in Pennsylvania that has drawn the attention of its own version of Elon Musk, Pennsylvania’s Elon Musk in some ways. More on that just ahead.
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Jen Psaki: Do you remember earlier this year when the world’s richest man, Elon Musk tried to buy himself an election in Wisconsin? Maybe you tried to block it out. I get it. But back in March, Musk on a cheesehead and held a massive rally in Green Bay, a rally at which he announced he would be giving out two $1 million checks to random attendees. That was just two of the more than $20 million Musk and the groups he supports spent in that race. It wasn’t the kind of race that normally attracts a ton of attention or outside spending. It was a state Supreme Court race. But as Elon Musk explain the outcome of that race was really much bigger than just Wisconsin.
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Elon Musk: Most people aren’t aware that there is this important election, that most people don’t even know that there’s an election at all. Or if they do, they aren’t sure exactly when and where it is. And they aren’t sure yet of, or they don’t realize just how important it is. They think it’s just, you know, some kind of judicial thing. That’s not that important. But actually, what they’re doing, what what’s happening on Tuesday is a vote for which party controls the U.S. House of Representatives.
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Jen Psaki: There he said it. I mean, ultimately even after Musk and the groups he supports pumped more than $20 million into that Wisconsin state Supreme Court race, the candidate they supported still lost. But in an era where state laws may offer the last protection in defense of personal rights, ranging from abortion access to voting. And at a time when Trump and Republicans are trying to gerrymander every congressional map they can and cry fraud after any election they lose, the rulings of state Supreme Courts can have huge national implications. And so now we are seeing yet another conservative billionaire, try to sway another state Supreme Court race. This time in Pennsylvania.
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Unknown: This fall, you can defend democracy and force an election for a new Supreme Court.
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Jen Psaki: Okay. That was an ad from a new political group in Pennsylvania called Citizens for Term Limits. Now the group uses buzzwords like democracy and term limits to make you think that voting no in Tuesday’s election is the pro-democracy thing to do. They even sent out this mailer claiming that the Pennsylvania state Supreme Court gerrymandered the state’s congressional district, you can see it right there on the screen. But as the Philadelphia Inquirer points out, the gerrymandered map used in the mailer was not drawn by Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court. It was drawn by Pennsylvania Republican state legislators, and thrown out by the state Supreme Court.
I mean, the reality here is that the Pennsylvania state Supreme Court has been protecting democracy. Not only by rejecting that Republican gerrymandered map, but by rejecting Trump’s attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 election after he lost the state. Now just like the state Supreme Court race that Musk try to sway in Wisconsin. The actual logistics of this race are pretty confusing. I mean, most people are not well versed on the ins and outs of judicial elections. We had to dive into it ourselves and these ads are trying to take advantage of that confusion.
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Unknown: We must defend our democracy, and three no votes will force an election. It’s time to term limit the court. Vote no, no, no.
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Jen Psaki: Now the reason that ad is telling voters to vote no three times is because there are three Pennsylvania Supreme Court justices on the ballot, but they aren’t running against anyone. The vote is simply whether these three current justices should get to keep their seats or have to leave the court at the end of the year. And while it’s true that every no vote would force an election, that election wouldn’t be held until 2027. And Republicans in the legislature likely won’t agree with Democratic Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro on any temporary replacements until then.
So really, what three no votes would do is take three liberal leaning justices off the state Supreme Court and leave the court. And this is the key part, gridlocked, with two conservative justices and two liberal justices, basically unable to act as a check against Republican anti-democracy efforts before or after the 2026 election. Now like Elon Musk said in March, what’s happening Tuesday is a vote for which party controls the U.S. House of Representatives. And while those ads are not the work of the world’s richest man, they are connected to groups supported by Pennsylvania’s richest man, billionaire Trump supporter Jeff Yass. And Yass and his wife donated more than a hundred million dollars to Trump and Republicans last year. Yass is one of the major shareholders in the TikTok China-based parent company, and Trump is set to decide TikTok fate in America any day now.
Now this weekend we learned that Yass was one of the donors to Trump’s White House ballroom as well that the White House failed to initially disclose surprise, surprise there. And now groups connected to him are pushing a misleading campaign to try to effectively bench Pennsylvania State Supreme Court before next year’s election. That’s a lot, but it’s important to follow. The state Supreme Court races in Pennsylvania on Tuesday, as I just outlined, could have major implications for the 2026 midterms and the 2028 election, which is likely why tonight Donald Trump put his thumb on the scale, urging his supporters in Pennsylvania to vote no, no, no on retaining those justices, citing their previous rulings against him during the 2020 election. If that is an incredibly telling about the importance of this race, I don’t know what is.
Joining me now is vice chair of the Democratic National Committee and Democratic Pennsylvania State Representative, Malcolm Kenyatta. You were so many hats. Let me just start on the state Supreme Court elections in Pennsylvania, because we talked about it tonight because I think it’s not getting enough. There’s exciting governor’s races. There’s Prop 50. Enough attention. Tell us about what’s at stake in those elections this Tuesday.
Malcolm Kenyatta: Well, I just want to say that people should go back and watch your intro on this because you explained it so well, an issue that could be complicated, but we have simple retention races. And you know, in Pennsylvania’s Constitution, we do these retention races for judges. So that voters have a touchpoint to effectively say, have these judges been abiding by the rules of ethics? Have they been upholding the Constitution? And because these, you know, races are usually so sleepy, we’ve had very few, I think there’s one or two judges who’ve ever lost a retention race because there were ethical lapses that voters were responding to.
But in this instance, you have Republicans, including Jeff Yass who you mentioned, the biggest donor in Pennsylvania by a mile who is spending millions of dollars, trying to get rid of our three Supreme Court justices. Not because they’re not upholding the Constitution, but actually because they are upholding the Constitution and because they refuse to work for Donald Trump, like so much of the federal judiciary.
Jen Psaki: And they’re essentially trying to kind of freeze the state Supreme Court. This is why Trump tweeted about it or posted about it all props, by the way, to Sam, one of our producers who is a borderline expert now on the state Supreme Court races in Pennsylvania, but such an important thing to understand. Let me ask you.
Malcolm Kenyatta: Well, Sam has joined a good club. He’s joined a good club of us.
Jen Psaki: Yes, that’s right. He’s joining. Good. Let me ask you about kind of a broader question, because we started the show talking about the NBC poll that showed the enthusiasm that Democrats have a seven-point enthusiasm advantage. There’s an eight-point preference for Democrats in the kind of generic ballot. As you’re looking to Tuesday as a vice chair of the DNC, what are you looking for? And what do you think what we’ve seen so far tells us about the electorate right now?
Malcolm Kenyatta: Well, I think what this new Democratic Party is doing, and what we have to do is to make sure that our neighbors are the main characters of this story. I think what frustrates people about politics and what our nominees are doing so well this election cycle is being clear about what elections are about in the first place. It’s not about putting an honorific in front of somebody’s name, it’s about people’s lives and whether or not we’re going to have leaders who wake up every day focused on the three words that I think animate the Democratic Party, our focus on making life better for working families and working people.
And I will tell you on Tuesday, what I’m looking forward to is being able to come back to talk to you to say, you know what? We retain our three justices on the Supreme Court who are going to stand up for the rule of law that in New York Zohran Mamdani is going to be the next mayor. In Virginia Abigail Spanberger is going to be the next governor, and in New Jersey, Mikie Sherrill is going to be the next governor of New Jersey. And I think in all of those campaigns, what you see are elected leaders who recognize as the reigning Super Bowl MVP of the Philadelphia Eagle says, they keep the main thing, the main thing. And the main thing is people deserve a government that works for them. Unlike what we’re seeing at the federal level right now, where Donald Trump is literally having a Great Gatsby bash as millions of Americans lose access to food, because he’s illegally withholding the funds. And I think that’s really the through line of this moment.
Jen Psaki: You can’t even have scripted the absurdity of that Friday night event. Malcolm Kenyatta, keep the thing the thing. I love that. We need t-shirts. Thank you so much for joining me.
Okay. Quick reminder before we go, MSNBC is going to have you covered from start to finish on election night. We’re going to be all over the races in New Jersey, in Virginia, in New York City, and Prop 50, all of it. On Tuesday, Ari Melber and I are going to kick off our special coverage at 6 p.m. Eastern. And then Rachel Maddow is going to lead full team coverage at the big table. A very big table, starting at 7 p.m. Eastern. The whole gang is going to be there. Ali Velshi is going to be breaking down the results as they come in as well.