The next is a transcript of Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s inaugural tackle, delivered from the steps of Metropolis Corridor on Jan. 1, 2026:
My fellow New Yorkers—right now begins a brand new period.
I stand earlier than you moved by the privilege of taking this sacred oath, humbled by the religion that you’ve positioned in me, and honored to function both your 111th or 112th Mayor of New York Metropolis. However I don’t stand alone.
I stand alongside you, the tens of hundreds gathered right here in Decrease Manhattan, warmed towards the January chill by the resurgent flame of hope.
I stand alongside numerous extra New Yorkers watching from cramped kitchens in Flushing and barbershops in East New York, from cell telephones propped towards the dashboards of parked taxi cabs at LaGuardia, from hospitals in Mott Haven and libraries in El Barrio which have too lengthy identified solely neglect.
I stand alongside development staff in steel-toed boots and halal cart distributors whose knees ache from working all day.
I stand alongside neighbors who carry a plate of meals to the aged couple down the corridor, these in a rush who nonetheless elevate strangers’ strollers up subway stairs, and each one who makes the selection day after day, even when it feels inconceivable, to name our metropolis residence.
I stand alongside over a million New Yorkers who voted for this present day almost two months in the past—and I stand simply as resolutely alongside those that didn’t. I do know there are some who view this administration with mistrust or disdain, or who see politics as completely damaged. And whereas solely motion can change minds, I promise you this: if you’re a New Yorker, I’m your Mayor. No matter whether or not we agree, I’ll defend you, rejoice with you, mourn alongside you, and by no means, not for a second, conceal from you.
I thank the labor and motion leaders right here right now, the activists and elected officers who will return to preventing for New Yorkers the second this ceremony concludes, and the performers who’ve gifted us with their expertise.
Thanks to Governor Hochul for becoming a member of us. And thanks to Mayor Adams—Dorothy’s son, a son of Brownsville who rose from washing dishes to the very best place in our metropolis—for being right here as nicely. He and I’ve had our share of disagreements, however I’ll at all times be touched that he selected me because the Mayoral candidate that he would most need to be trapped with on an elevator.
Thanks to the 2 titans who, as an Assemblymember, I’ve had the privilege of being represented by in Congress—Nydia Velázquez and our unbelievable opening speaker Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. You might have paved the best way for this second.
Thanks to the person whose management I search most to emulate, who I’m so grateful to be sworn in by right now—Senator Bernie Sanders.
Thanks to my groups—from the Meeting, to the marketing campaign, to the transition and now, the workforce I’m so excited to steer from Metropolis Corridor.
Thanks to my dad and mom, Mama and Baba, for elevating me, for educating me the best way to be on this world, and for having introduced me to this metropolis. Thanks to my household—from Kampala to Delhi. And thanks to my spouse Rama for being my greatest pal, and for at all times exhibiting me the sweetness in on a regular basis issues.
Most of all—thanks to the folks of New York.
A second like this comes not often. Seldom can we maintain such a chance to rework and reinvent. Rarer nonetheless is it the folks themselves whose arms are those upon the levers of change.
And but we all know that too typically in our previous, moments of nice chance have been promptly surrendered to small creativeness and smaller ambition. What was promised was by no means pursued, what may have modified remained the identical. For the New Yorkers most desperate to see our metropolis remade, the burden has solely grown heavier, the wait has solely grown longer.
In scripting this tackle, I’ve been advised that that is the event to reset expectations, that I ought to use this chance to encourage the folks of New York to ask for little and count on even much less. I’ll do no such factor. The one expectation I search to reset is that of small expectations.
Starting right now, we’ll govern expansively and audaciously. We might not at all times succeed. However by no means will we be accused of missing the braveness to attempt.
To those that insist that the period of massive authorities is over, hear me once I say this—not will Metropolis Corridor hesitate to make use of its energy to enhance New Yorkers’ lives.
For too lengthy, we’ve got turned to the non-public sector for greatness, whereas accepting mediocrity from those that serve the general public. I can not blame anybody who has come to query the function of presidency, whose religion in democracy has been eroded by many years of apathy. We’ll restore that belief by strolling a distinct path—one the place authorities is not solely the ultimate recourse for these struggling, one the place excellence is not the exception.
We count on greatness from the cooks wielding a thousand spices, from those that stride out onto Broadway phases, from our place to begin guard at Madison Sq. Backyard. Allow us to demand the identical from those that work in authorities. In a metropolis the place the mere names of our streets are related to the innovation of the industries that decision them residence, we’ll make the phrases ‘City Hall’ synonymous with each resolve and outcomes.
As we embark upon this work, allow us to advance a brand new reply to the query requested of each technology: Who does New York belong to?
For a lot of our historical past, the response from Metropolis Corridor has been easy: it belongs solely to the rich and well-connected, those that by no means pressure to seize the eye of these in energy.
Working folks have reckoned with the results. Crowded lecture rooms and public housing developments the place the elevators sit out of order; roads plagued by potholes and buses that arrive half an hour late, if in any respect; wages that don’t rise and firms that rip off customers and staff alike.
And nonetheless—there have been temporary, fleeting moments the place the equation modified.
Twelve years in the past, Invoice de Blasio stood the place I stand now as he promised to “put an end to economic and social inequalities” that divided our metropolis into two.
In 1990, David Dinkins swore the identical oath I swore right now, vowing to rejoice the “gorgeous mosaic” that’s New York, the place each one in every of us is deserving of a good life.
And almost six many years earlier than him, Fiorella La Guardia took workplace with the purpose of constructing a metropolis that was “far greater and more beautiful” for the hungry and the poor.
A few of these Mayors achieved extra success than others. However they had been unified by a shared perception that New York may belong to greater than only a privileged few. It may belong to those that function our subways and rake our parks, those that feed us biryani and beef patties, picanha and pastrami on rye. And so they knew that this perception might be made true if solely authorities dared to work hardest for many who work hardest.
Through the years to return, my administration will resurrect that legacy. Metropolis Corridor will ship an agenda of security, affordability, and abundance—the place authorities seems to be and lives just like the folks it represents, by no means flinches within the battle towards company greed, and refuses to cower earlier than challenges that others have deemed too difficult.
In so doing, we’ll present our personal reply to that age-old query—who does New York belong to? Effectively, my buddies, we are able to look to Madiba and the South African Freedom Constitution: New York “belongs to all who live in it.”
Collectively, we’ll inform a brand new story of our metropolis.
This won’t be a story of 1 metropolis, ruled solely by the one %. Nor will or not it’s a story of two cities, the wealthy versus the poor.
Will probably be a story of 8 and a half million cities, every of them a New Yorker with hopes and fears, every a universe, every of them woven collectively.
The authors of this story will converse Pashto and Mandarin, Yiddish and Creole. They are going to pray in mosques, at shul, at church, at Gurdwaras and Mandirs and temples—and plenty of won’t pray in any respect.
They are going to be Russian Jewish immigrants in Brighton Seashore, Italians in Rossville, and Irish households in Woodhaven—lots of whom got here right here with nothing however a dream of a greater life, a dream which has withered away. They are going to be younger folks in cramped Marble Hill flats the place the partitions shake when the subway passes. They are going to be Black householders in St. Albans whose properties characterize a bodily testomony to overcome many years of lesser-paid labor and redlining. They are going to be Palestinian New Yorkers in Bay Ridge, who will not must deal with a politics that speaks of universalism after which makes them the exception.
Few of those 8 and a half million will match into neat and simple bins. Some will probably be voters from Hillside Avenue or Fordham Highway who supported President Trump a yr earlier than they voted for me, bored with being failed by their celebration’s institution. The bulk won’t use the language that we regularly count on from those that wield affect. I welcome the change. For too lengthy, these fluent within the good grammar of civility have deployed decorum to masks agendas of cruelty.
Many of those folks have been betrayed by the established order. However in our administration, their wants will probably be met. Their hopes and goals and pursuits will probably be mirrored transparently in authorities. They are going to form our future.
And if for too lengthy these communities have existed as distinct from each other, we’ll draw this metropolis nearer collectively. We’ll substitute the frigidity of rugged individualism with the heat of collectivism. If our marketing campaign demonstrated that the folks of New York yearn for solidarity, then let this authorities foster it. As a result of it doesn’t matter what you eat, what language you converse, the way you pray, or the place you come from—the phrases that almost all outline us are the 2 all of us share: New Yorkers.
And will probably be New Yorkers who reform a long-broken property tax system. New Yorkers who will create a brand new Division of Neighborhood Security that may sort out the psychological well being disaster and let the police deal with the job they signed as much as do. New Yorkers who will tackle the unhealthy landlords who mistreat their tenants and free small enterprise homeowners from the shackles of bloated forms. And I’m proud to be a kind of New Yorkers.
Once we received the first final June, there have been many who stated that these aspirations and people who held them had come out of nowhere. But one man’s nowhere is one other man’s someplace. This motion got here out of 8 and a half million somewheres—taxi cab depots and Amazon warehouses, DSA conferences and curbside domino video games. The powers that be had appeared away from these locations for fairly a while—in the event that they’d identified about them in any respect—so that they dismissed them as nowhere. However in our metropolis, the place each nook of those 5 boroughs holds energy, there isn’t any nowhere and there’s no nobody. There’s solely New York, and there are solely New Yorkers.
8 and a half million New Yorkers will converse this new period into existence. Will probably be loud. Will probably be completely different. It’s going to really feel just like the New York we love.
Regardless of how lengthy you might have known as this metropolis residence, that love has formed your life. I do know that it has formed mine.
That is town the place I set landspeed data on my razor scooter on the age of 12. Quickest 4 blocks of my life.
Town the place I ate powdered donuts at halftime throughout AYSO soccer video games and realized I in all probability wouldn’t be going professional, devoured too-big slices at Koronet Pizza, performed cricket with my buddies at Ferry Level Park, and took the 1 practice to the BX10 solely to nonetheless present up late to Bronx Science.
Town the place I’ve gone on starvation strike simply outdoors these gates, sat claustrophobic on a stalled N practice simply after Atlantic Avenue, and waited in quiet terror for my father to emerge from 26 Federal Plaza.
Town the place I took a ravishing lady named Rama to McCarren Park on our first date and swore a distinct oath to turn into an American citizen on Pearl Road.
To dwell in New York, to like New York, is to know that we’re the stewards of one thing the ultimate in our world. The place else are you able to hear the sound of the steelpan, savor the odor of sancocho, and pay $9 for espresso on the identical block? The place else may a Muslim child like me develop up consuming bagels and lox each Sunday?
That love will probably be our information as we pursue our agenda. Right here, the place the language of the New Deal was born, we’ll return the huge assets of this metropolis to the employees who name it residence. Not solely will we make it doable for each New Yorker to afford a life they love as soon as once more—we’ll overcome the isolation that too many really feel, and join the folks of this metropolis to at least one one other.
The price of childcare will not discourage younger adults from beginning a household—as a result of we’ll ship common childcare for the numerous by taxing the wealthiest few.
These in rent-stabilized properties will not dread the most recent hire hike—as a result of we’ll freeze the hire.
Getting on a bus with out worrying a few fare hike or whether or not you’ll be late to your vacation spot will not be deemed a small miracle—as a result of we’ll make buses quick and free.
These insurance policies aren’t merely concerning the prices we make free, however the lives we fill with freedom. For too lengthy in our metropolis, freedom has belonged solely to those that can afford to purchase it. Our Metropolis Corridor will change that.
These guarantees carried our motion to Metropolis Corridor, and they’ll carry us from the rallying cries of a marketing campaign to the realities of a brand new period in politics.
Two Sundays in the past, as snow softly fell, I spent twelve hours on the Museum of the Shifting Picture in Astoria, listening to New Yorkers from each borough as they advised me concerning the metropolis that’s theirs.
We mentioned development hours on the Van Wyck Expressway and EBT eligibility, inexpensive housing for artists and ICE raids. I spoke to a person named TJ who stated that at some point just a few years in the past, his coronary heart broke as he realized he would by no means get forward right here, regardless of how arduous he labored. I spoke to a Pakistani Auntie named Samina, who advised me that this motion had fostered one thing too uncommon: softness in folks’s hearts. As she stated in Urdu: logon ke dil badalgyehe.
142 New Yorkers out of 8 and a half million. And but—if something united every particular person sitting throughout from me, it was the shared recognition that this second calls for a brand new politics, and a brand new method to energy.
We’ll ship nothing much less as we work every day to make this metropolis belong to extra of its folks than it did the day earlier than.
Here’s what I would like you to count on from the administration that this morning moved into the constructing behind me.
We’ll remodel the tradition of Metropolis Corridor from one in every of ‘no’ to one in every of ‘how?’
We’ll reply to all New Yorkers, to not any billionaire or oligarch who thinks they’ll purchase our democracy.
We’ll govern with out disgrace and insecurity, making no apology for what we imagine. I used to be elected as a Democratic socialist and I’ll govern as a Democratic socialist. I cannot abandon my ideas for worry of being deemed radical. As the good Senator from Vermont as soon as stated: “What’s radical is a system which gives so much to so few and denies so many people the basic necessities of life.”
We’ll attempt every day to make sure that no New Yorker is priced out of any a kind of primary requirements.
And all through all of it we’ll, within the phrases of Jason Terrance Phillips, higher often called Jadakiss or J to the Muah, be “outside”—as a result of it is a authorities of New York, by New York, and for New York.
Earlier than I finish, I need to ask you, if you’re ready, whether or not you might be right here right now or anyplace watching, to face.
I ask you to face with us now, and each day that follows. Metropolis Corridor will be unable to ship on our personal. And whereas we’ll encourage New Yorkers to demand extra from these with the good privilege of serving them, we’ll encourage you to demand extra of yourselves as nicely.
The motion we started over a yr in the past didn’t finish with our victory on Election Night time. It won’t finish this afternoon. It lives on with each battle we’ll battle, collectively; each blizzard and flood we stand up to, collectively; each second of fiscal problem we overcome with ambition, not austerity, collectively; each manner we pursue change in working peoples’ pursuits, quite than at their expense, collectively.
What we obtain collectively will attain throughout the 5 boroughs and it’ll resonate far past. There are a lot of who will probably be watching. They need to know if the left can govern. They need to know if the struggles that afflict them may be solved. They need to know whether it is proper to hope once more.
So, standing along with the wind of goal at our backs, we’ll do one thing that New Yorkers do higher than anybody else: we’ll set an instance for the world. If what Sinatra stated is true, allow us to show that anybody could make it in New York—and anyplace else too. Allow us to show that when a metropolis belongs to the folks, there isn’t any want too small to be met, no particular person too sick to be made wholesome, nobody too alone to really feel like New York is their residence.
The work continues, the work endures, the work, my buddies, has solely simply begun.
Thanks.
