[2][3] His family has close ties to Baltimore's Italian-American community, with his grandfather, Joseph N. Zannino Jr., having been a member of the Order Sons of Italy in America and the steering committee for the first Columbus Day national holiday celebration.
[3] He said that he was inspired to run for office by his late grandfather, Nicholas Mangione, a successful real estate developer who grew up in a poor Italian immigrant family.
[18] During the 2024 legislative session, Mangione introduced a bill to ban "sexually explicit" material in public school libraries[19] and unsuccessfully sought to add the bill onto the Freedom to Read Act, which prohibits public and school libraries from banning books based on partisan, ideological, or religious reasons, or based an author's origin, background, or views.
[22] Following this incident, Mangione and state delegate Kathy Szeliga wrote to Governor Larry Hogan calling on him to deploy the Maryland National Guard to protect the statue.
[23] He later introduced legislation that would prohibit any person from destroying, damaging, vandalizing or desecrating a monument, memorial, or statue of historical significance.
[24] In 2023, Mangione voted against the Trans Health Equity Act, a bill that would require the state's Medicaid program to cover gender-affirming treatment.
[25] He later criticized the legislature for passing the bill, saying that he was upset about the direction of the legislative session: "We've promoted issues like trans equity but we haven't really done anything about crime.