Mayor says ‘I will govern as a democratic socialist’ at inauguration ceremony featuring AOC and Bernie Sanders
Zohran Mamdani on Thursday vowed to “reinvent” New York City in a speech on his first day as mayor, promising “a new era” for America’s largest city and an ambitious start to his term of office.
The 34-year-old political star and democratic socialist, who a year ago was a virtually unknown state assemblyman, is the city’s first Muslim mayor, first of south Asian descent and the first to be born in Africa. He is also the first to be sworn in using the Qur’an.
Mamdani added that a “moment like this comes rarely and rarer still is it that the people themselves whose hands are upon the levers of change”.
The mayor said that in writing his remarks, he was advised to lower expectations. “I will do no such thing,” he said. “The only expectation I seek to reset is that of small expectations. Beginning today we will govern expansively and audaciously. We may not always succeed but never will we be accused of lacking the courage to try.”
