Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani announced Wednesday that former Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan will serve as co-chair of his transition team, joining a group of veteran city and federal officials tasked with guiding his move into City Hall.
Khan will lead the transition alongside political strategist Elana Leopold, who was named executive director, and Grace Bonilla, Melanie Hartzog, and Maria Torres-Springer — all women with deep experience in city government and civic leadership.
“I and my team will build a City Hall capable of delivering on the promises of this campaign,” Mamdani said, pledging a compassionate and capable administration following his historic victory over former Democrat Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Republican Curtis Sliwa.
The 34-year-old democratic socialist becomes New York’s first Muslim and South Asian mayor — and its youngest in more than a century.
He now faces the task of following through on his ambitious affordability agenda while navigating the bureaucratic challenges of City Hall and the potential opposition from the Trump administration.
“I’m confident in delivering these same policies that we ran on for the last year,” he said.
Mamdani said he had not heard from Cuomo or the city’s outgoing mayor, Eric Adams. He did speak with Sliwa.
A spokesperson for Cuomo, Rich Azzopardi, said he would “let their respective speeches be the measuring stick for grace and leave it at that.”
In his victory speech to supporters, Mamdani had wished Cuomo the best in private life, before adding: “Let tonight be the final time I utter his name, as we turn the page on a politics that abandons the many and answers only to the few.”
More than 2 million New Yorkers cast ballots in the contest, the largest turnout in a mayoral race in more than 50 years, according to the city’s Board of Elections. With roughly 90% of the votes counted, Mamdani held an approximately 9 point lead over Cuomo.
Mamdani, who was criticized throughout the campaign for his thin resume, will now have to begin staffing his incoming administration and planning how to accomplish the ambitious but polarizing agenda that drove him to victory.
“The directive here has to be one of ensuring that it is excellence that characterizes the people I surround myself with, both in the appointments in the team and in the general expectation that is being set for my City Hall,” Mamdani said.
Among the campaign’s promises are free child care, free city bus service, city-run grocery stores, and a new Department of Community Safety that would send mental healthcare workers to handle certain emergency calls rather than police officers.
It is unclear how Mamdani will pay for such initiatives, given Democrat Gov. Kathy Hochul’s steadfast opposition to his calls to raise taxes on wealthy people.
Mamdani touted his support from Hochul and other state leaders as “endorsements of an agenda of affordability.”
His decisions around the leadership of the New York Police Department will also be closely watched.
Mamdani was a fierce critic of the department in 2020, calling for “this rogue agency” to be defunded and slamming it as “racist, anti-queer & a major threat to public safety.” He has since apologized for those comments and has said he will ask the current NYPD commissioner to stay on the job.
Mamdani has already faced scrutiny from national Republicans, including President Donald Trump, who have eagerly cast him as a threat and the face of a more radical Democratic Party that is out of step with mainstream America. Trump has repeatedly threatened to cut federal funding to the city — and even take it over — if Mamdani won.
“…AND SO IT BEGINS!” the president posted late Tuesday to Truth Social.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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