Mayoralty of Zohran Mamdani
has served as the 112th mayor of New York City since January1, 2026. A member of the Democratic Party and the Democratic Socialists of America, Mamdani was elected mayor in the 2025 election, succeeding Eric Adams. He is the city's first Muslim and Asian American mayor, as well as the first from the borough of Queens.
Campaign
2025 Democratic primary
General election
The general election campaign between Democrat Mamdani, Cuomo running as an independent following his defeat in the Democratic primary, and Republican Curtis Sliwa was widely considered bruising, as Cuomo received unusually high support for an independent candidate. On November 4, 2025, in what was the closest New York City mayoral election since 2009, Mamdani was declared the winner of the 2025 New York City mayoral election. In doing so, Mamdani became the first NYC mayoral candidate since 1969 to receive more than one million votes.Background and transition
On November 5, 2025, the day after his general election victory, Mamdani named a transition team led by Elana Leopold and co-chaired by four women, including Maria Torres-Springer, who served as New York's first deputy mayor from 2024 to 2025; Lina Khan, who served as the chair of the Federal Trade Commission from 2021 to 2025; Grace Bonilla, the president and chief executive of United Way of New York City; and Melanie Hartzog, who served as the deputy mayor for health and human services from 2020 to 2022. According to The New York Times, Mamdani considered naming Torres-Springer as his first deputy mayor.On November 10, 2025, Mamdani announced that Elle Bisgaard-Church, his chief of staff in the state assembly, would retain her role in his administration, and named Dean Fuleihan, the first deputy mayor from 2018 to 2021, as his first deputy mayor.
Throughout December 2025 and early January 2026, Mamdani announced 20 other nominees.
Inauguration
Mamdani was inaugurated shortly after midnight EST on January 1, 2026, in a private ceremony on the steps of City Hall station, a decommissioned subway station beneath City Hall. Attorney General of New York Letitia James officiated the oath of office, with his spouse Rama Duwaji holding two copies of the Quran on which he swore his oath, one belonging to his grandfather and another pocket-sized version that dates back to the late 18th or early 19th century on loan from the collection at the New York Public Library’s Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture and obtained by historian Arturo Schomburg. Mamdani's first act as mayor was appointing transportation consultant, educator, and former NYC Department of Transportation director of capital planning and project management Mike Flynn his Department of Transportation commissioner immediately after taking the oath.Mamdani was publicly inaugurated the same day at 1:00 p.m., with U.S. Senator for Vermont Bernie Sanders officiating. Speakers and performers at the inauguration included Sanders, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Javier Muñoz, Lucy Dacus, and Mandy Patinkin. Other notable attendees include Public Advocate Jumaane Williams and Comptroller Mark Levine, who were also sworn in, Mira Nair, Mahmood Mamdani, Governor Kathy Hochul, and former mayors Eric Adams and Bill de Blasio.
Administration
On January 1, 2026, he signed his first executive orders, which revoked all executive orders his predecessor Eric Adams had made after being indicted on bribery charges on September 25, 2024, and established his deputy mayors. This included two orders issued by Adams which prohibited city agencies from boycotting Israel and defined some forms of criticism against Israel as antisemitic, per the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance's definition of antisemitism; Israel criticized Mamdani's decision and labelled it "antisemitic." Mamdani claimed his administration would "combat hate and division" and pointed out that numerous Jewish organizations in the city did not abide by the interpretation presented by the now-defunct executive orders. Mamdani also stated that the Office to Combat Anti-Semitism, which was established by order of Adams in December 2025, would not be dissolved, and instead would continue to operate. He also announced three executive orders relating to housing and tenants' rights, including one to revive the Mayor's Office to Protect Tenants.On January 2, 2026, Mamdani signed an executive order that established the Mayor's Office of Mass Engagement, which will strategize about increasing political engagement with a broad base of New Yorkers and implementing public feedback into policy-making. He also appointed Tascha Van Auken as the office's commissioner.