Overview
- After a private midnight oath at the Old City Hall subway station administered by Attorney General Letitia James, Mamdani held a public City Hall ceremony where Senator Bernie Sanders administered a ceremonial oath and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez delivered remarks.
- He became the city’s first Muslim mayor, the first of South Asian descent, the first born in Africa, and its youngest leader in more than a century.
- Mamdani took his oath on two Qurans, including a family volume and a historic copy lent by the New York Public Library’s Schomburg Center.
- The new mayor signed day-one actions reversing several Eric Adams-era executive orders, which his office described as a fresh start for the administration.
- He pledged to govern as a democratic socialist with proposals such as a rent freeze for stabilized apartments, free buses, universal child care, and city-run grocery pilots, funded by higher taxes on wealthy residents and corporations, drawing conservative backlash and facing hurdles in Albany.