Fifteen years ago, Nino Mangione flew down to the edge of Arizona and northwestern Mexico to record “Order on the Border” — a segment on WCBM radio’s “The Tom Marr Show.”

Back then, the future Maryland lawmaker was just Nino, a baby-faced producer fresh out of college working for Marr — the late talk-radio pioneer often compared to conservative giant Rush Limbaugh.

“I started seeing crime increase, I started seeing stories in the news about how much we’re spending … and then, of course, I started working here, at WCBM radio,” Mangione said during an interview inside the conservative talk radio station’s Lutherville office.

The trip to the border and his journey from Towson University intern to WCBM host inspired Mangione, now the station’s news and editorial director, to run for political office.

He was elected to the Democrat-dominated Maryland House of Delegates in 2018 and has represented Baltimore County as a self-described conservative Republican fighting “the ‘WOKE’ policies of the radical left.”

While proud of his family, Mangione refuses to field questions about his cousin, Luigi Mangione, 27, who was charged in last December’s fatal shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson on a Manhattan street. At the time, the Republican posted a statement on his family’s behalf expressing shock, grief and sympathy for the Thompson family.

Mangione would much rather keep the conversation centered on his next pivot: His bid for an open seat on the Baltimore County Council.

The move poses a new challenge for Mangione, known for his firebrand conservatism. The council has historically functioned through compromise, despite members’ differing political ideologies.

Mangione, 38, believes he can have a greater impact as a county councilman, especially when it comes to saving taxpayers’ money.

“It’s another opportunity, another challenge, but I bring forth experience from being in the legislature to the county,” he said.

A firebrand on the County Council?

Mangione is running unopposed for the council seat of Wade Kach, who’s retiring, in the newly redrawn District 5, which covers northern Baltimore County.

Kach declined to comment for this story.

Councilman David Marks, a Perry Hall Republican, said the council will benefit from Mangione’s fiscally conservative lens.

“He will challenge us even more to be looking out for the taxpayers, and that’s a welcome development,” Marks said.

But will Mangione’s partisan politics fit on a dais that has traditionally operated with bipartisanship and councilmanic courtesy?

Marks said he would ask the same question of the liberal Democrats running for council in 2026.

“I think [Mangione] has the smarts to become an effective county councilman,” Marks added. “All of us grow into the position — that’s what I’ll say.”

Mangione said he won’t apologize for not going along with statewide policies he says have increased crime, contributed to an education system burdened by bureaucracy and shifted tax dollars toward “woke” social policies.

“If somebody wants to call that partisan, well, that’s their prerogative, not mine,” he said.

Mangione vehemently opposed the state’s Trans Health Equity Act, a 2023 law requiring that Medicaid cover “medically necessary gender-affirming treatment” in Maryland.

The delegate also introduced a failed bill earlier this year banning “sexually explicit” books in public school libraries.

Asked whom he admires most — inside or outside politics — Mangione did not hesitate: “President Donald Trump.”

“Against all odds, Trump has not only been successful, but … this is a man who was shot, this is a man who had his home raided, a man who [Democrats] tried to destroy, throw in jail and tried to go after his business and his family, and he puts it all behind him,” Mangione said.

Del. Nick Allen, a Baltimore County Democrat, said he is curious how Mangione’s legislative experience will translate to the county council.

“Not just for Nino, but for anyone who makes the leap from the General Assembly to county government: How is that approach going to translate when local courtesy tends to win out?” he said.

State Sen. Chris West, a Republican representing Baltimore and Carroll counties, said there are two ways for members of his party to operate in a majority-Democratic body: work behind the scenes to influence legislation, as he does, or message loudly against polices you oppose, like Mangione.

“I think you need both,” West said. “If every Republican was like me laboring behind the scenes quietly and never objected … then our constituents would say, ‘What’s going on here?’”

West said he has high hopes Mangione will make a smooth transition to the smaller council from the big legislature.

“Personal relationships will be very important, and Nino is very personable,” he said.

Fighting power lines

Beyond his County Council bid, Mangione has been a vocal critic of a proposed 70-mile power line proposed to cut through Baltimore, Carroll and Frederick counties.

Jeff Sprinkle appreciates the delegate’s efforts to block a project that threatens over 400 Marylanders’ properties, including his family’s Carroll County land. Mangione is different from the average politician, he said.

“You know the ones that are smiling and listening to you, who really don’t care what you have to say,” he said, “and then there’s people like Nino, who is very interested in the situation and the plight facing us.

Earlier this summer, Mangione invited West to speak to constituents in Parkton at a packed town hall about the $424 million project.

“I think he’s done a great job on this issue,” West said later. “Nino’s been right there in the forefront and, to his credit, tried to get people to come who’ve done extensive research and provide factual information.”

Mangione said he’s heard from Marylanders who are on the cusp of losing generational family farms and their livelihoods.

“Their rights as private citizens are being trampled on by this out-of-state power company,” he said. “I have an obligation to try to fight this project to the last bit of my being, and that’s what I’ve been doing.”

Marks, an ardent environmentalist dedicated to conservation, said Mangione has provided exceptional leadership fighting the Piedmont project.

West agreed.

“It would be easy just to demagogue and say, ‘N-I-M-B-Y’ all in capital letters, but that’s not how Nino has handled this,” the state senator said.

Sprinkle, who was unaware of Mangione’s conservative politics, said he respects how the Republican delegate has worked across the aisle and lobbied Democrats such as Gov. Wes Moore to fight the transmission line.

“If he was running in Carroll County, he’d have our vote without blinking an eye,” he said.

Well-known family

The Mangione family is well-known in the Baltimore area.

Nino’s grandfather, Nick Mangione Sr., was a first-generation Italian immigrant who served in World War II, became a prominent real estate developer and later purchased WCBM in 1988.

The elder Mangione inspired Nino, one of his 37 grandchildren, to pursue a career in politics.

Conservative talk radio was part of the fabric of growing up, Mangione said, along with the kitchen-table politics as he listened to his mom, uncles and grandparents debate.

His maternal grandfather, Paul J. Toskes, was the son of Italian-American immigrants and a World War II veteran who served in the Army during the Battle of the Bulge and is buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

“A lot of [my political leanings] started with my grandparents,” Mangione said. “Their parents were born in Italy, they came here and lived the American Dream and that was very influential for me.”

He said hosts at WCBM, like Marr, reinforced his conservative views.

A lifelong Baltimore County resident, Mangione is eager for a chance to shape policy in the county he calls home.

“It’s where I’ve always been, it’s where my family’s been, our work has been, our lives have been,” he said, “that made the decision where I said, ‘OK, I’m going to jump for the council.’”