NYC mayor-elect Mamdani announces all-woman transition team

Zohran Mamdani, the mayor-elect of New York City announced an all-women team to lead his official transition effort on Wednesday.

The team includes City Hall veterans, nonprofit leaders, and a former chair of the Federal Trade Commission.

Mamdani’s transition team

Executive Director: Elana Leopold — Progressive political strategist, longtime de Blasio aide, and senior adviser to the Mamdani campaign.

Co-chairs:

Maria Torres-Springer — Former First Deputy Mayor

Lina Khan — Former Chair, Federal Trade Commission

Grace Bonilla — President, United Way of New York City

Melanie Hartzog — City budget expert

“I think what we saw last night was New Yorkers not just electing a new mayor, but clearly rejecting a politics where outside corporate power and money too often,” Khan said as she announced the transition team.

Mamdani ‘excited’ to be immigrant mayor, but on tough road to affordability goal

After election results, at his first news conference as mayor-elect, Mamdani announced that Pakistani American Lina Khan would be the co-chair of his transition team, which would vet candidates for jobs and work out the arrangements for him to take over the administration of this city of 8.5 million.

She was ousted as the head of the Federal Trade Commission by President Donald Trump, with whom Mamdani has been sparring.

Speaking to reporters in front of the Unisphere, a giant globe of the world at a city park, he spoke of its symbolism for his administration.

“We chose this location as a reflection of the borough [of Queens] that I serve, and the fact that we are proud to be known as the world's borough.”

“I am excited to be the first immigrant to lead this city in generations and more excited, frankly, to deliver on an agenda of affordability,” he said.

“Central to that effort is a transition team that is defined by the excellence New Yorkers will soon come to expect from the government”, he added.

A significant early personnel announcement was that he wanted Jessica Tisch to stay on as police commissioner, a move that would assuage the insecurities of people over crime and his earlier anti-police statements, calling them a threat to public safety and of being involved with the Israeli military.

Tisch, who is Jewish and known for her tough anti-crime policies that may be at odds with Mamdani’s stances, has not indicated if she would stay on.

Given some of his statements and his involvement with the anti-Israel protest verging on anti-Semitism that rocked the city, he said, “I look forward to being the mayor for every person that calls this city home. That includes the Jewish New Yorkers that voted for our campaign and those that didn't”.

Campaign promises

Mamdani’s central campaign promise was to make the city affordable, a message that resonated with New Yorkers’ economic concerns and propelled him to the mayoralty.

Among them were freezing rents on some homes, adding more housing to the city plagued by shortages, free city buses, city-owned shops, and childcare for all, and these were to be financed by increasing taxes on the rich.

(With inputs from syndicated feed)