Zohran Mamdani Takes Office as New York City Mayor in Historic Inauguration

By Felicia Guo

NEW YORK — Zohran Mamdani was sworn in as mayor of New York City on Jan. 1, 2026, beginning a new chapter for the nation’s largest city as thousands of New Yorkers gathered in Lower Manhattan to witness the historic transition of power.

Mamdani, 34, became New York City’s first Muslim mayor, as well as its first mayor of South Asian descent and first born in Africa. He is also the city’s youngest mayor in generations.

The new mayor officially took office just after midnight during a private ceremony inside the historic, decommissioned City Hall subway station. New York Attorney General Letitia James administered the oath as Mamdani placed his hand on a Quran, marking another first in the city’s history.

Hours later, the celebration moved above ground for a public inauguration outside City Hall. U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders administered the ceremonial oath, while Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was among the prominent political figures participating in the program. Mamdani’s wife, Rama Duwaji, joined him during the ceremony.

Despite temperatures well below freezing, several thousand people gathered in Lower Manhattan. The city established an additional public viewing area along Broadway, where crowds watched the ceremony on large screens. Spectators stood shoulder to shoulder along the Canyon of Heroes, with some arriving hours before the program began.

In his inaugural address, Mamdani described the beginning of his administration as a “new era” for New York and said his government would pursue an ambitious agenda focused heavily on the city’s cost of living.

“Beginning today, we will govern expansively and audaciously,” Mamdani told the crowd, adding that City Hall would use government power to improve the lives of New Yorkers.

Affordability was a central theme of both Mamdani’s campaign and his inauguration. His campaign proposals included universal child care, free bus service, protections for tenants and efforts to make housing more affordable. In his speech, Mamdani repeatedly referenced working-class New Yorkers, including construction workers, food vendors and other residents facing the city’s high cost of living.

The inauguration also reflected the political movement that carried Mamdani from the New York State Assembly to City Hall. Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez, two prominent figures on the Democratic Party’s progressive wing, addressed the crowd, while Gov. Kathy Hochul and former Mayor Eric Adams were among the officials attending the ceremony.

Mamdani previously represented a Queens district in the State Assembly before launching his mayoral campaign. His rapid rise placed issues such as housing costs, public transportation and economic inequality at the center of the 2025 mayoral race.

The new mayor wasted little time beginning his administration. Following the inauguration, Mamdani took several executive actions and traveled to Brooklyn to announce housing initiatives focused on tenant protection and increasing housing construction.

For the New Yorkers who filled the streets around City Hall on the first day of 2026, however, the inauguration was also a distinctly New York public event — political leaders on the steps of City Hall, crowds filling Lower Manhattan and a new mayor taking office against the backdrop of one of the city’s most historic civic spaces.

Mamdani now begins the challenge of turning the promises that propelled his campaign into policy while leading a city of more than eight million residents. His inauguration marked not only the beginning of a new administration, but a historic change in the face of New York City government.