(The Center Square) — New York City mayor-elect Zohran Mamndani will be sworn into office next month by embattled New York Attorney General Letitia James and socialist icon Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, his transition team announced Monday.
James will administer the oath of office to Mamdani at midnight on Dec. 31 at a yet-to-be-determined location, while Sanders will swear in the mayor at a public ceremony on Jan. 1 at 1 p.m., the mayor-elect’s transition team said. His four-year term officially begins at 12:01 a.m. on New Year’s Day.
“It is an honor to be sworn in by two leaders I have admired for years: Attorney General Tish James and Senator Bernie Sanders,” Mamdani said in a statement. “I can think of no better leaders to help usher in a new era for New York City.”
Mamdani, a 34-year-old Democratic socialist and former state lawmaker, won a three-way mayoral race in November that sent shockwaves through the city’s political landscape. He has proposed city-owned grocery stores to bring down food prices, freezing rents on nearly 1 million rent-stabilized apartments and making New York City’s buses free.
In a statement, Mamdani gushed that James “has taken on powerful interests in her defense of New Yorkers and embodied the principle of equal justice before the law.” He said Sanders “laid the foundations for our movement with his steadfast commitment to the dignity of working people and his belief in a government that serves the many, not just the few.”
In turn, Sanders said Mamdani “represents a new generation of progressive leadership rooted in courage, integrity and solidarity” and said he takes over the nation’s largest city “at a moment when democracy is under attack and cynicism about our politics runs deep.”
“His victory is not just about one city or one election, it is about the strength of a working class movement that says unequivocally: the future of New York belongs to the people, not the billionaire class,” Sanders said. “It is my honor to swear him in as the next mayor of New York City.”
James praised Mamdani for running a campaign “that brought together New Yorkers around the universal idea that we should all be able to afford to live in our city.”
“I look forward to working with him and his Administration to deliver on that vision as we keep all New Yorkers safe,” she said.
