Tom Allon: The Midterms, the Mayor, and What Comes Next

Sheena Wright and David C. Banks sit down with Tom Allon, publisher of City & State, founder of the Five Borough Institute, Stuyvesant graduate, and former mayoral candidate, for a wide-ranging Election Day conversation.

Allon shares why he sees the 2026 midterms as a crossroads for the country, his outlook for the House and Senate, and what a Democratic Congress would — and wouldn’t — change. He also talks Trump and the press, his own encounters in New York media and politics, and closer to home: Mayor Mamdani and education, mayoral control, specialized high schools, and career and technical education. Plus the thread that runs through it all for him — civics, great teachers, and why young New Yorkers need to learn their city’s history early.