STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — A pair of the nation’s top left politicos will lead swearing-in duties of the city’s new mayor Jan. 1.
Attorney General Letitia James will administer Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s oath of office at a private midnight ceremony, and Sen. Bernie Sanders, a Vermont independent, will do the same at a public event to be held later New Year’s Day.
“Attorney General James has taken on powerful interests in her defense of New Yorkers and embodied the principle of equal justice before the law. Senator Bernie Sanders laid the foundations for our movement with his steadfast commitment to the dignity of working people and his belief in a government that serves the many, not just the few,” Mamdani said. “I can think of no better leaders to help usher in a new era for New York City.”
The incoming Mamdani administration will hold the public ceremony on the steps of City Hall around 1 p.m. New Year’s Day with a “block party” in the surrounding area where the mayor-elect’s team expects “tens of thousands” of revelers.
Mamdani styles the event an “Inauguration of a New Era” distinguishing it from past mayoral inaugurations that have typically seen a few thousand ticketed guests gathered in City Hall Plaza to welcome the new city executive.
Outgoing Mayor Eric Adams held his swearing-in ceremony in Times Square New Years Day 2022 after the ball drop.
“At a moment when democracy is under attack and cynicism about our politics runs deep, Zohran Mamdani represents a new generation of progressive leadership rooted in courage, integrity and solidarity,” Sanders, a Brooklyn native, said. “His victory is not just about one city or one election, it is about the strength of a working class movement that says unequivocally: the future of New York belongs to the people, not the billionaire class. It is my honor to swear him in as the next mayor of New York City.”