New York enters the era of Zohran Mamdani

As midnight struck in New York, the giant ball of Irish crystals and LED lights descended from atop the building at 1 Times Square to mark, as it does every year, the end of one era and the beginning of another. And the city didn’t just welcome 2026, or the second quarter of the 21st century. Its nearly 8.5 million inhabitants also hailed the dawn of a new age, the age of Zohran Kwame Mamdani.

In another New Year’s tradition, the first Muslim and socialist mayor of the most populous city in the United States, and the unofficial capital of the world, took office in the first minutes of 2026. It was in a private ceremony, held about 50 blocks south of Manhattan and in a parallel universe to the bustle of Times Square.

True to his talent for choreographing the milestones that have taken him in just over 12 months from a virtually unknown young politician, a member of the Democratic Socialist Party of America, to one of the great global hopes of the left, the new mayor chose for the ceremony the ghost City Hall subway station, a filigree from another era, with its vaults by the Spanish architect Rafael Guastavino and its brass chandeliers, completed in 1904 and out of use since the end of World War II.

There, Mamdani made history as the first mayor of the city of 9/11 to be sworn into office on a Quran. Three, actually: two inherited from his family — his parents, Indian filmmaker Mira Nair and Ugandan Columbia University scholar Mahmoud Mamdani, were present at the ceremony — and a third, which he will use early Thursday afternoon for his second inauguration. That one belongs to the collection of Afro-Puerto Rican writer Arturo Schomburg.

The decision was laden with symbolism for the nearly one million Muslims living in the city. It is a growing community, singled out after the attack on the Twin Towers, and one now witnessing one of its own wield the reins of power, much to the dismay of the American far right and the Christian nationalism that dominates the MAGA movement.

“This is truly the honor and the privilege of a lifetime. We have chosen this place as a testament to the importance of public transportation to the vitality, health, and heritage of our city,” said the new mayor, after being sworn into office in the presence of his wife, Rama Duwaji, and New York State Attorney General Letitia James, who administered the oath of office in another meaningful choice.

James was a thorn in the side of Mamdani’s electoral rival, former governor Andrew Cuomo, as well as then-Republican candidate Donald Trump, whom she sued in New York in a civil case for “fraud and misrepresentation” concerning his financial statements. Once Trump secured his return to the White House, his Justice Department indicted James, one of the Democratic politicians who most quickly embraced Mamdani’s reform agenda.

Two other prominent figures on the American left, without whom the new mayor’s rise would be incomprehensible, will participate Thursday in his second inauguration, a massive celebration of his arrival in office. Bronx Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez will deliver a speech on the steps of City Hall at approximately 1:00 p.m. local time. Senator Bernie Sanders (Vermont) will then administer Mamdani’s oath of office.

It was Sanders’ campaign in the 2016 presidential elections, the first that Trump won, that inspired the new mayor to leave behind his career as a rapper and music producer to enter politics from the left-wing faction of the Democratic Party, whose victory — and his new style, a mix of a charisma that is difficult to imitate, a message based on controlling the cost of living, and an extraordinary command of social networks — has turned things on its head.

Never-ending campaign

To a large extent, Mamdani’s campaign did not end with his resounding victory at the polls on November 4, the day two million New Yorkers turned out to vote, breaking a record for voter turnout unseen since the late 1960s. Through advertising and attention-grabbing tactics, the young politician has remained committed to his mission of convincing his neighbors (and the rest of the world) that he is ready to compensate for his inexperience by listening to the problems of New Yorkers.

Now he must prove that his promises — free buses, childcare for all, and a rent freeze for rent-controlled apartments — are not incompatible with the realities of managing a $150 billion budget. And that he will also be able to make New York a safe city.

Mindful of Abraham Lincoln’s old advice — “Public sentiment is everything. With public sentiment, nothing can fail; without it, nothing can succeed” — his first decision as mayor has been to organize a street party for his constituents. Tens of thousands of them are invited this Thursday, along with the four thousand who usually attend the mayoral inauguration, to shake off their New Year’s Eve hangovers and head to the vicinity of City Hall in Lower Manhattan for a block party inspired by those where hip-hop culture was born in the Bronx.

And once again, Mamdani has set out to make history. It’s the first time the city has welcomed its new mayor by taking to the streets on a day with sub-zero temperatures expected. It’s more than just greeting the city’s 112th mayor in its roughly 400-year history — not the 111th, as was believed until a few weeks ago when an archivist corrected the tally of mayoral occupants. That list has included immigrants, strikingly young men, and socialist sympathizers like Mamdani, but never a woman.

This time it’s also about ushering in a new era, the era of Zohan Kwame Mamdani. Now it’s up to him to live up to his promise. It won’t be easy.

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