Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani to be sworn in by Attorney General Letitia James, Sen. Bernie Sanders

New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani will be sworn in by state Attorney General Letitia James during a private ceremony at 12:01 a.m. Jan. 1, then will be administered the oath of office by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) in a public ceremony before 4,000 ticketed guests gathered at City Hall Plaza on New Year’s Day.

The public ceremony, the Mamdani team said, will be broadcast to a "block party" style gathering along Broadway’s Canyon of Heroes.

Calling it the "Inauguration of a New Era," the Mamdani team said in a statement Monday the celebration is "designed to ensure that all New Yorkers are able to take part in ushering in a new era for New York City."

A democratic socialist political upstart who upended former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and Republican Curtis Sliwa in the November election, Mamdani, in a statement, called it "an honor" to be sworn in by two figures he has "admired for years," adding: "Attorney General James has taken on powerful interests in her defense of New Yorkers and embodied the principal of equal justice before the law."

Mamdani said of Sanders: "Sen. Bernie 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."

The Mamdani team said the public oath of office ceremony will feature "dedicated viewing areas" for "tens of thousands" it hopes will gather for "a huge inaugural block party" along the Canyon of Heroes.

In the statement released Monday, James said of Mamdani: "He ran a campaign that brought together New Yorkers around the universal idea that we should all be able to afford to live in our city."

Calling it an honor to administer the oath, Sanders, also in a statement, said: "At a moment when democracy is under attack and cynicism about our politics runs deep, Zohran Mamdani represents a new generation of progressive leadership rooted in courage, integrity and solidarity."

By John Valenti

john.valenti@newsday.com

John Valenti, a Newsday reporter since 1981, has been honored nationally by the Associated Press, Society of the Silurians and National Headliner Awards for investigative, enterprise and breaking news reporting, as well as column writing. He is the author of “Swee'pea,” about New York playground basketball star Lloyd Daniels. His debut crime novel, “For Nothing Is Hidden,” rooted in 1950s Long Island, was released in October 2025.