{"id":214467,"date":"2026-01-01T07:04:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-01T07:04:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/214467\/"},"modified":"2026-01-01T07:04:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-01T07:04:07","slug":"zohran-mamdani-sworn-in-as-mayor-of-new-york-city-zohran-mamdani","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/214467\/","title":{"rendered":"Zohran Mamdani sworn in as mayor of New York City | Zohran Mamdani"},"content":{"rendered":"

Zohran Mamdani<\/a> was sworn in as mayor of New York City<\/a> soon after midnight in a private ceremony in an abandoned beaux arts subway station \u2013 a prelude to daylong celebrations set to include a second, public swearing-in and a block party outside city hall.<\/p>\n

Mamdani, 34, was sworn into office by the New York<\/a> attorney general, Letitia James, surrounded by wife, Rama Duwaji, members of his immediate family, including Mira Nair, his mother and a film-maker, and his father, Mahmood Mamdani, a professor of African studies at Columbia University.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is truly the honor and the privilege of a lifetime,\u201d Mamdani said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI cannot wait to see everyone tomorrow as we begin our term.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter just having taken my oath to become the mayor of the city of New York, I do so also here in the old City Hall subway station \u2013 a testament to the importance of public transit to the vitality, the health, the legacy of our city.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mamdani then announced and welcomed a new transportation commissioner for the city, Mike Flynn, a veteran city planner, with the mayor saying he wanted to make New York\u2019s public transit network \u201cthe envy of the world\u201d. Flynn said he was accepting the \u201cjob of a lifetime\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThank you all so much \u2026 and I will see you later,\u201d Mamdani concluded, to audience laughter, before departing up the wide subway stairs where he took the oath, followed by attendees.<\/p>\n

The ceremony was also attended by the outgoing mayor, Eric Adams, who had held off from a commitment to attending but later said he\u2019d \u201clike to be there to show the smooth, peaceful transition of power\u201d.<\/p>\n

To honor his Muslim faith, Mamdani was sworn in using a Qur\u2019an, Islam\u2019s holiest book, becoming the first mayor in New York City to do so. He was sworn in at midnight with his hand on his grandfather\u2019s Qur\u2019an and one that belonged to Arturo Schomburg, a Black writer and historian, which was lent to the mayor by the New York public library, according to the New York Times.<\/p>\n

Also attending were a diverse cast of New Yorkers Mamdani selected for an inaugural committee, including actor John Turturro, playwright Cole Escola and writer Colson Whitehead, as well as advocates, small business owners and campaign workers who the incoming mayor\u2019s office says have \u201cprovided perspective, guidance and cultural sensibility\u201d for the ceremony.<\/p>\n

The midnight ceremony will be followed a 1pm public event at which the new mayor will be introduced by political ally and Bronx Democratic congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and sworn in by Vermont senator Bernie Sanders.<\/p>\n

Mamdani\u2019s office has said the choice to be sworn in at the old city hall subway station reflected his \u201ccommitment to the working people who keep our city running every day\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen Old City Hall Station first opened in 1904 \u2013 one of New York\u2019s 28 original subway stations \u2013 it was a physical monument to a city that dared to be both beautiful and build great things that would transform working people\u2019s lives,\u201d Mamdani said in a statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat ambition need not be a memory confined only to our past.\u201d<\/p>\n

The day\u2019s events are a culmination of a remarkable rise to power in the US\u2019s most populous city, both for a political unknown and for the Democratic Socialist party that Mamdani, elected as a Democrat, represents.<\/p>\n

The first signs of Mamdani\u2019s electoral potential came earlier in the year, ahead of a primary vote that saw him knock out former governor Andrew Cuomo, who later ran as an independent candidate. Adams, then under the scrutiny of federal prosecutors, chose not to seek the Democratic nomination.<\/p>\n

In April, Mamdani was trailing Cuomo 36% to 64%. Those numbers shifted after Mamdani\u2019s savvy political campaign took off on social media; his robust grassroots efforts appeared to energize first-time voters struggling with the high cost of living in the post-pandemic city.<\/p>\n

A campaign spokesperson said Mamdani\u2019s success owed to him \u201cbeing everywhere all of the time\u201d, with more than 10,000 volunteers knocking on more than 100,000 doors, and by pushing out a platform of affordability, rent freezes, free metro transport and city-run grocery stores \u2013 as well as the creation of a department of community safety to invest in citywide mental health programs.<\/p>\n

Democrat campaign veteran Hank Sheinkopf said<\/a> that Mamdani \u201crepresents the city of the future \u2013 a more Asian city, a more Muslim city, and what could be a more leftwing city\u201d.<\/p>\n

In November, the then state assemblyman won the election with 50.78% of the vote, defeating Republican activist Curtis Sliwa and Cuomo. In his victory speech<\/a>, Mamdani spoke of his commitment to working New Yorkers who did not normally have access to the levers of power.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet the words we\u2019ve spoken together, the dreams we\u2019ve dreamt together, become the agenda we deliver together,\u201d he said. \u201cNew York, this power, it\u2019s yours. This city belongs to you.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Zohran Mamdani was sworn in as mayor of New York City soon after midnight in a private ceremony…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":214468,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-214467","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214467","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=214467"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214467\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/214468"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=214467"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=214467"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=214467"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}