NEW YORK — Throngs of supporters braved the cold Thursday afternoon in lower Manhattan to attend the inauguration of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, the democratic socialist who mounted a historic campaign to lead the nation’s largest city and captured global attention.
Hundreds of well-wishers, staff, elected officials and journalists crammed into City Hall plaza to hear the city’s 112th mayor double down on his campaign pledges as he set lofty goals for transforming the city.
“I have been told that this is the occasion to reset expectations, that I should use this opportunity to encourage the people of New York to ask for little and expect even less,” Mamdani said after being sworn in by Sen. Bernie Sanders, a fellow democratic socialist. “I will do no such thing. The only expectation I seek to reset is that of small expectations.”
Mamdani repeatedly pledged wholesale changes to city services, a lofty task given the municipal government’s gigantic size — it employs more than 300,000 people — and the nest of union contracts and civil service rules that govern that vast workforce.
“We expect greatness from the cooks wielding a thousand spices, from those who stride out onto Broadway stages, from our starting point guard at Madison Square Garden,” he said. “Let us demand the same from those who work in government.”
Notably absent from Mamdani’s oration were any direct shots aimed at President Donald Trump.
After winning the Nov. 4 general election, Mamdani used part of that speech to specifically call out the commander-in-chief, whom Mamdani surmised was watching the address on television. On Thursday, the democratic socialist largely stuck to repeating the campaign pledges of universal child care, free city buses and freezing the rent for rent-stabilized tenants that set his once longshot campaign alight and rocketed him to international fame.
Sanders, who spoke before administering the oath of office, alluded to the implications for national Democrats who are pivoting en masse to a message of affordability in the wake of Mamdani’s success.
“Thank you for inspiring our nation,” Sanders said to the New Yorkers who supported the new mayor. “Thank you for giving us, from coast to coast, the hope and the vision that we can create a government that works for all, not just the wealthy and the few, in a moment when people in America and in fact throughout the world are losing faith in democracy.”
At the top of the program another luminary of the left, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, painted a broad picture of a movement coming into an unprecedented position of power.
“This event marks a new era for New York City,” she said.
Yet also present were officials past and present who represent Mamdani’s imperfect fit within the broader Democratic Party.
Some of the loudest cheers of the afternoon, for example, came when Sanders and Mamdani pledged to tax high income earners — something Gov. Kathy Hochul, who was seated on the dais — has pledged not to do. With Mamdani now in office, she will undoubtedly come under increasing pressure to change her mind even as she faces a tricky reelection campaign this year.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer was also present. The longtime Senate leader declined to endorse Mamdani in the general election, even after he won the Democratic primary, a glaring highlight of divisions within the party over issues like Israel's war in Gaza. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, who reluctantly backed Mamdani just before Election Day, was not in attendance.
Mamdani had already been mayor for hours by the time his fete kicked off.
Technically, he was sworn in just after midnight Thursday by state Attorney General Letitia James in a disused subway station beneath City Hall that was once considered the crown jewel of the subway system. James, one of the most prominent backers of his candidacy, praised Mamdani during the frigid proceedings outside City Hall.
While Mamdani has taken several steps toward the center since Election Day in a bid to moderate and grow his coalition, he also sought to keep his core base of supporters on the left close.
“We will govern without shame and insecurity, making no apology for what we believe,” he said. “I 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.”
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