Local elections held outside of the year will receive national attention on cable news

Politics in the year following a presidential election typically focuses on local and statewide contests.

But the two races scheduled for Tuesday — which include a pivotal New York mayoral contest and California’s congressional redistricting referendum — will have national implications. The presidential elections in Virginia and New Jersey will inform President Trump’s second term.

As a result, cable news channels will pay special attention. The races will also be an important test for two cable news networks in transition.

“This is the first election of the 2026 midterms, and we know what happens 30 seconds after the midterms end — 2028 starts in earnest,” said Chris Stirewalt, political editor at Nexstar Media Group’s NewsNation. “In New Jersey and Virginia, you have two states that are very similar to the country as a whole. President Trump’s approval ratings in those places are about the same nationally.”

MSNBC will cover its first election night without the resources of NBC News. The forward-oriented network — which changed its name to MS NOW on Nov. 15 — is being spun off by parent company Comcast into a new entity called Versant.

NBC News no longer shares reporters or analysts with MSNBC. The channel’s lineup of opinion hosts including Rachel Maddow, Joe Scarborough, Nicolle Wallace, Ari Melber and Lawrence O’Donnell remains unchanged.

Loyal MSNBC viewers will notice that election data guru Steve Kornacki won’t be crunching the numbers on his big board. Kornacki signed a new contract last year with NBC, where he works in the news and sports division.

Kornacki will be part of the network’s coverage on NBC News Now, its free streaming channel. NBC Nightly News anchor Tom Lammas leads coverage with Haley Jackson, the network’s chief Washington correspondent. and “Meet the Press” director Kristen Welker.

MSNBC host Ali Velshi will take over the voter analysis duties previously handled by Kornacki. The network said it will have 15 correspondents reporting across the country, including West Coast-based Jacob Soboroff to provide analysis on TikTok.

CNN will use the night to test the consumer appeal of a new live-streaming service that launched last week.

While CNN will have its usual lineup of anchors and experts led by anchor Jake Tapper, Anderson Cooper and Erin Burnett, the network will also offer an alternate broadcast featuring its analyst Harry Enten alongside conservative commentator Ben Shapiro and The Breakfast Club host Charlamagne Tha God.

The CNN Election Broadcast will only be available from 5:30-7:30 PM PT to CNN All Access subscribers. The program will be a discussion of the results presented as a “more informal option” for viewers, according to a network representative.

The broadcast will mark the first time that CNN, which is owned by Warner Bros. Discover, extensive live coverage exclusively for live streaming audiences.

Fox News will rely on anchors Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum for special television broadcasts at 10pm ET and 7pm PT, in anticipation of its comedy talk show “Gutfeld!”

Election night in 2025 will also mark a change in announcing results. All major broadcast and cable networks will use data analysis from the Associated Press, which teamed up with Fox News and NORC at the University of Chicago several years ago to create an alternative to the research firm used by CBS, NBC, ABC and CNN.

Starting Tuesday, all five networks will receive the voting results at the same time.

The exception is Nexstar Media Group’s NewsNation, which will use its Decision Desk headquarters to call its races during its coverage co-anchored by Stirewalt, Chris Cuomo, Leland Vittert and Elizabeth Vargas. The service was the first to announce the results of the 2024 presidential election, beating the competition by 15 minutes.

Being able to call the race early means more time for analysis, which is expected to focus heavily on what the results say about the 2026 midterm elections and the 2028 presidential campaign.

The night has the potential to determine the political plot lines for the next two years, Stirewalt said. He believes the passage of Proposition 50 in California and a victory for New York mayoral candidate Zahran Mamdani would elevate Gov. Gavin Newsom and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez as 2028 presidential contenders.

“This would be a big feather in the cap for AOC, who can say she’s leading a movement,” Stirewalt said. “Gavin Newsom has to ring the bell. He has to say, ‘I won. I did something that was controversial. I took it to Donald Trump. I’m winning.’