New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani announced an all-women team to lead his official transition effort on Wednesday.
The 34-year-old named a slate of transition advisers who have worked in the administrations of former mayors Eric Adams, Bill de Blasio, and Michael Bloomberg. They include former city and federal officials, nonprofit executives, and veterans of City Hall.
“I and my team will build a City Hall capable of delivering on the promises of this campaign,” the mayor-elect said at a news conference at the Unisphere in Queens, vowing that his administration will “work every day to honor the trust that I now hold.”
Progressive political strategist Elana Leopold, a longtime de Blasio aide and senior adviser to the Mamdani campaign, will serve as the transition’s executive director. Former First Deputy Mayor Maria Torres-Springer, former Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan, United Way of New York City President Grace Bonilla, and city budget expert Melanie Hartzog will all serve as his transition co-chairs.
Read more: The Billionaires Who Failed to Stop Zohran Mamdani, and How Much They Spent
Mamdani’s announcement did not include any new top administrative appointments but reaffirmed his intention to retain Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch. Tisch, originally appointed by former Mayor Adams, has not publicly stated whether she will remain in the role, but Mamdani’s aides maintain confidence that she will.
The transition team is tasked with ensuring the mayor-elect has a smooth path ahead from Election Day to the inauguration in January. Mamdani’s team draws from across social services, finance, city budgeting, and housing development.
New York City Chief of Detectives Joesph Kennedy (C) and New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch (L) speak to the media regarding what homicide authorities believe was a targeted attack on United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson at One Police Plaza on Dec. 4, 2024. Alex Kent—Getty Images
As mayor, Mamdani will serve as the boss to approximately 300,000 city employees and guardian of a budget exceeding $100 billion.
During his first news conference since winning, Mamdani claimed that he wants the transition groundwork to complement his administration’s “commitment to solving old problems with new solutions.”
“The poetry of campaigning may have come to a close last night at night at 9, but the beautiful prose of governing has only just begun,” he said, adapting a line from his opponent, Andrew M. Cuomo’s father, the former Gov. Mario M. Cuomo.
On Tuesday, Mamdani defeated his opponent, former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, in a tense general election marked by record voter turnout, becoming the city’s first Muslim mayor, one of the nation’s few democratic socialist executives, and one of the youngest mayors in the city’s history.
Over 2 million New Yorkers cast ballots, marking the largest turnout in a mayoral race in more than 50 years, according to the city’s Board of Elections. Mamdani leads by an estimated 9 percentage points over Cuomo with about 90% of the votes counted.
Mamdani, criticized during the campaign for his limited experience, now faces the challenge of building his team and delivering on a bold, divisive agenda.
His promises include free child care and bus service, city-run grocery stores, and a new Department of Community Safety that would send mental health workers—not police—to certain emergencies. How he’ll fund these plans is unclear, given Gov. Kathy Hochul’s firm resistance to raising taxes on the wealthy. On Wednesday, he highlighted his backing from Hochul and other state leaders as “endorsements of an agenda of affordability.”
“I don’t begrudge New Yorkers who were skeptical, and I don’t begrudge them because they were subjected to around $40 million in attack ads,” the mayor-elect, an outgoing Queens state assemblymember, told NY1 on Wednesday morning. “So, for many New Yorkers, when they open their mailbox, turn on their TV, or put on their radio, they would hear something or the other about why they should fear me. My job now is to lead the entirety of the city, and I’m looking forward to it.”
