Overview
- After a private midnight oath at the Old City Hall subway station administered by Attorney General Letitia James, Mamdani took a public oath at City Hall with Sen. Bernie Sanders officiating and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez delivering opening remarks.
- Mamdani, 34, became the city’s first Muslim mayor, the first of South Asian descent and African-born to hold the office, and its youngest leader in more than a century, placing his hand on a Qur’an for both ceremonies.
- He pledged to govern as a democratic socialist and to pursue a rent freeze for stabilized apartments, free and faster buses, universal child care, city-run grocery pilots, and property tax reform.
- Thousands attended the City Hall ceremony and a Broadway block party, where supporters chanted “tax the rich” as allies framed his election as a mandate for affordability-focused government.
- Major hurdles lie ahead, including multibillion-dollar funding needs, Governor Kathy Hochul’s resistance to raising income taxes, and late-term Rent Guidelines Board moves by former Mayor Eric Adams that could complicate a rent freeze.