{"id":88221,"date":"2026-01-03T16:58:35","date_gmt":"2026-01-03T16:58:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/88221\/"},"modified":"2026-01-03T16:58:35","modified_gmt":"2026-01-03T16:58:35","slug":"zohran-mamdani-is-sworn-in-as-mayor-of-new-york-city-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/88221\/","title":{"rendered":"Zohran Mamdani is sworn in as mayor of New York City"},"content":{"rendered":"

New York
\n \u00a0\u2014\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n Zohran Mamdani<\/a>, the democratic socialist who campaigned on a promise to tackle the affordability crisis in one of America\u2019s most expensive cities, vowed to govern \u201cexpansively and audaciously\u201d as he was sworn in as New York City\u2019s 112th mayor Thursday.\n <\/p>\n

\n Mamdani\u2019s inauguration was a celebration of the progressive agenda he\u2019s bringing to City Hall, attended by some of the biggest names in the progressive movement, including independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who swore in Mamdani.\n <\/p>\n

\n Mamdani, a 34-year-old immigrant from Uganda, makes history as the city\u2019s first Muslim mayor, first South Asian mayor and the youngest mayor to hold the high-profile office in more than a century.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cMy fellow New Yorkers, today begins a new era,\u201d Mamdani said after his swearing-in.\n <\/p>\n

\n In his speech Thursday, Mamdani spoke glowingly of the city he now leads, promising to be a mayor to all New Yorkers as he recalled taking the subway and bus as a teenager to his high school in the Bronx and his first date with his wife, Rama Duwaji<\/a>, in Brooklyn\u2019s McCarren Park.\n <\/p>\n

\"New<\/p>\n

\n \u201cI know there are some who view this administration with distrust or disdain, or who see politics as permanently broken, and while only action can change minds, I promise you this: If you are a New Yorker, I am your mayor,\u201d Mamdani said.\n <\/p>\n

\n At the same time, Mamdani rejected any suggestions he would temper the ambitious agenda he set out in his campaign, pledging to bring down costs for everyday New Yorkers.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cBeginning today, we will govern expansively and audaciously. We may not always succeed, but never will we be accused of lacking the courage to try,\u201d Mamdani said. \u201cI was elected as a democratic socialist and I will govern as a democratic socialist. I will not abandon my principles for fear of being deemed radical.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n The former state assemblyman from Queens captured the world\u2019s attention and stunned the political establishment with his win in the Democratic primary last summer, running a campaign focused on affordability<\/a>: He promised to create a universal childcare program, freeze the rent for roughly two million rent-stabilized tenants and make city buses \u201cfast and free.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Among the thousands who attended Thursday\u2019s ceremony were high-profile leaders of the progressive movement buoyed by Mamdani\u2019s win, including Sanders and Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez<\/a>.\n <\/p>\n

\"US<\/p>\n

\"Mayor<\/p>\n

\n Before swearing in the new mayor, Sanders thanked the tens of thousands of volunteers for his campaign who took on the Democratic and Republican establishments and \u201cdefeated them in the biggest political upset in modern American history.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cDemanding that the wealthy and large corporations start paying their fair share of taxes is not radical, it is exactly the right thing to do,\u201d Sanders said, as the crowd loudly chanted \u201ctax the rich!\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Ocasio-Cortez, who won her own upset primary for Congress in New York in 2018, touted Mamdani as a mayor \u201crelentlessly dedicated to making life not just possible, but aspirational for working people.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cZohran will be the first Muslim mayor of our great city. He will be our first immigrant mayor in over a century. And he will be the youngest mayor of New York City in generations,\u201d she continued. \u201cBut most importantly, Zohran will be a mayor for all of us.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n The speakers who participated in Mamdani\u2019s inauguration echoed many of the themes from his campaign and the larger progressive movement.\n <\/p>\n

\n Cornelius Eady read a poem for Mamdani that he dedicated \u201cto my trans, queer, foreign students of color at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville,\u201d where he said he had recently retired, \u201cso they can see this is possible.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n New York Public Advocate Jumaane Williams was sworn in by people impacted by immigration enforcement, including Senegalese immigrant Amadou Ly, <\/a>whose speech introducing Williams drew a strong reaction from the inauguration crowd.\n <\/p>\n

\n Other familiar faces present included former Mayor Bill de Blasio, who Mamdani has described as the best mayor in recent history. Outgoing Mayor Eric Adams was seated alongside de Blasio, with the crowd outside City Hall booing when Adams was shown on screen.\n <\/p>\n

\n On Thursday, Mamdani signed several executive orders, including one that revoked all executive orders by his predecessor<\/a> on or after September 26, 2024, when Adams was federally indicted on public corruption charges<\/a>.\n <\/p>\n

\n The Justice Department under President Donald Trump directed prosecutors to drop the charges against Adams<\/a> earlier this year, and Adams has maintained he did nothing wrong.\n <\/p>\n

\n Inside City Hall Plaza, the crowd began to gather early Thursday morning, bundled up in the freezing temperatures. A DJ attempted to keep the crowd warmed up as they waited for the ceremony to start.\n <\/p>\n

\n A block party hosted by Mamdani\u2019s transition team \u2014 dubbed the \u201cInauguration of a New Era\u201d \u2014 was held on Broadway, just outside the gates of city hall. The new mayor\u2019s supporters lined the street behind barricades, many decked out in Zohran merchandise from his campaign and buttons that read, \u201cNYC Inauguration 2026,\u201d bearing the signature branding and color palette of Mamdani\u2019s campaign.\n <\/p>\n

\"New<\/p>\n

\n Jen Shoemaker, a New Orleans native who moved to New York 14 years ago and volunteered for Mamdani\u2019s campaign, was decked out in a colorful headpiece with flowers and a \u201cZohran\u201d paper fan.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cEverybody\u2019s so energetic. We\u2019re so ready for Zohran,\u201d said Shoemaker, who arrived more than two hours before the inauguration began. \u201cWe need Democrats with backbones and Zohran has one.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Fernando Restrepo, a lifelong New Yorker, was watching from the crowd with his partner and two young sons, one of them in a stroller. He said he\u2019d never attended a mayoral inauguration in the city before but was inspired to come out because of the message of hope and unity he felt Mamdani\u2019s election represented.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cI think that we are looking at the possibility of a lot of progressive policies being put into place, and I think that means a safer society for all,\u201d he said.\n <\/p>\n

\n Simone Swartz, a veteran, was there with her friends Dev Mehra and Bilal Mohammed, holding a pink teddy bear they had given her that was outfitted in a Mamdani T-shirt. Mamdani, she said, was the first political candidate she felt excited to vote for.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cMamdani has been the first politician this has actually supported actual American values: treating everybody with respect, freedom and access to public services,\u201d she said.\n <\/p>\n

\n The block party also drew some attendees who weren\u2019t Mamdani supporters. Sharon Jones, who described herself as a conservative Republican, said she was there as part of her \u201ccivic duty as a New Yorker.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cEven though my political views are different, as a New Yorker, it\u2019s all about community,\u201d she said. \u201cMy neighbor is my neighbor regardless of what political affiliations they may have.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Mamdani was officially sworn in just after midnight during a private ceremony alongside his wife. His parents, filmmaker Mira Nair and Mahmood Mamdani, a professor at Columbia University, were also in attendance.\n <\/p>\n

\n For the ceremony, Mamdani chose a Quran from the New York Public Library that was once part of Afro-Latino historian Arturo Schomburg\u2019s personal library.\n <\/p>\n

\n In a statement<\/a> prior to the ceremony, the library said Mamdani\u2019s selection of Islam\u2019s holy book \u201cmarks a significant moment in our city\u2019s history.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\"New<\/p>\n

\n It\u2019s a choice steeped in meaning for Mamdani and the hundreds of thousands of Muslims who call New York City home. It\u2019s the first time a Quran has been used in a mayoral inauguration.\n <\/p>\n

\n In addition to the NYPL\u2019s book, Mamdani also used a Quran that belonged to his grandfather during the midnight ceremony, according to his transition team.\n <\/p>\n

\n New York State Attorney General Letitia James, who Mamdani has described as a \u201cpolitical inspiration,\u201d administered the oath of office as Mamdani placed his left hand on the two books.\n <\/p>\n

\n The setting was symbolic. Mamdani was sworn in on the platform of the old City Hall subway station underneath City Hall Park in Manhattan \u2013 an architectural marvel where tiled, arched ceilings, colored glass skylights and brass chandeliers have laid dormant since the station was shuttered in 1945.\n <\/p>\n

\n The location, which is closed to the public except for the occasional guided tour, is one of New York\u2019s 28 original subway stations that opened in 1904, ushering in a new dawn of innovation and growth in New York City.\n <\/p>\n

\n Following his midnight swearing-in, Mamdani spoke about the significance of the setting, calling it \u201ca testament to the importance of public transit to the vitality, the health and the legacy of our city.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\"New<\/p>\n

\n Mamdani\u2019s ambitious agenda has drawn some skepticism. He has proposed taxing the wealthy to pay for his proposals, something he can only do with the support of the state legislature and the governor. And while Mamdani is taking office at a time of general economic strength in the city, the high cost of living is squeezing working-class New Yorkers.\n <\/p>\n

\n The dawn of Mamdani\u2019s administration also comes as the national Democratic Party<\/a> is wrestling with its identity and struggling to energize a divided base. Mamdani\u2019s win<\/a> has fueled debate about whether the party should move further to the left and focus on affordability as its primary issue in the upcoming midterm elections.\n <\/p>\n

\n This story has been updated with additional information.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New York \u00a0\u2014\u00a0 Zohran Mamdani, the democratic socialist who campaigned on a promise to tackle the affordability crisis…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":88222,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[10098,9,11,10],"class_list":["post-88221","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-hnk","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88221","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=88221"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88221\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/88222"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}