Senator Bernie Sanders, independent of Vermont, stood with Zohran Mamdani as he charted his meteoric rise from obscure state assemblyman to the internationally known mayor-elect of New York City.
On Jan. 1, Mr. Sanders will stand by Mr. Mamdani’s side once again, two democratic socialists on the steps of City Hall for a public swearing-in ceremony before a crowd of supporters that Mr. Mamdani’s team predicts will swell to a staggering 40,000 people.
The public event will follow, by about 13 hours, the official swearing-in ceremony — a more private affair at a still-undisclosed location. Letitia James, the New York attorney general, will administer that oath of office at around midnight on New Year’s Eve. The mayor-elect will promise to uphold the Constitutions of the United States, New York State and the charter of New York City, and to faithfully discharge his duties as mayor.
The senator, who will administer the oath of office, said in an interview on Monday that if he also delivers remarks at the inauguration he is likely to focus on the “retreat” of democracy in the United States. He said that “working people” correctly perceive “that government no longer works for them, but just for wealthy campaign contributors and a billionaire class that controls the economy.”
“The enormous, enormously difficult task that is on Zohran’s shoulders is to show that government can deliver for working families and not just for the wealthiest people,” he said.
The structure of Mr. Mamdani’s oath-taking mirrors that of Bill de Blasio, who won election in 2013.
When Mr. de Blasio took office, Eric Schneiderman, then the state’s attorney general, administered the official oath in a short, modest ceremony around midnight outside of the new mayor’s Park Slope home. Then, later that day on Jan. 1, former President Bill Clinton administered a more public oath of office to Mr. de Blasio on the steps of City Hall.
Mr. Sanders administered the oath of office for Mr. de Blasio’s second term, and many of Mr. de Blasio’s former aides are involved in Mr. Mamdani’s transition.
Stu Loeser, a democratic consultant who served as the press secretary for former Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, said Mr. Mamdani’s plan to address a large crowd of supporters also evoked another political figure.
“It echoes President-elect Obama skipping the stuffy ballroom and speaking to a massive crowd in Chicago’s Grant Park on his election night,” Mr. Loeser said. “But instead of a lovely lakeside park in a smaller city, Mayor Mamdani will be on Broadway — a name people around the world use as shorthand for the world’s biggest stage.”
The outgoing mayor, Eric Adams, had grand plans for his own inauguration involving a ceremony at Brooklyn’s King’s Theatre. But his vision was foiled by a coronavirus surge. He ended up taking his oath of office around midnight in Times Square, from Sylvia Hinds-Radix, who would go on to serve as his first corporation counsel.
Mr. Mamdani has said that Mr. Sanders inspired him to run for office. And both Mr. Sanders and Ms. James have been ardent champions of Mr. Mamdani. Mr. Sanders, a Brooklyn native, endorsed him in the Democratic primary for mayor, in which Mr. Mamdani trounced former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo.
When Mr. Cuomo decided to continue running in the general election on an independent ballot line, Mr. Sanders and Ms. James rode to Mr. Mamdani’s aid. Mr. Sanders repeatedly rallied with Mr. Mamdani, describing him as the “future of the Democratic Party” and assailing other party leaders for failing to immediate coalesce behind him.
The two men share the view that “it is imperative that we have a government in New York City and around the country that represents working people and not just the oligarchs,” Mr. Sanders said on Monday, “not just the wealthiest people in the country or in the City of New York — who, by the way, did everything they could to defeat him.”
Ms. James initially endorsed Adrienne Adams, the City Council speaker, in the Democratic primary. But when Ms. Adams’s campaign failed to take off, Ms. James began pivoting toward Mr. Mamdani. She worked to help him make inroads among older Black voters, taking him to a Seventh Day Adventist church and advising him when a gunman killed four people at a Midtown Manhattan office building.
When Ms. James, an antagonist of President Trump, was indicted on a federal bank fraud charge that was ultimately tossed out, Mr. Mamdani was one of her most outspoken defenders.
“It’s an honor to swear in Zohran alongside his family,” Ms. James said in a statement. “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. I look forward to working with him and his Administration to deliver on that vision as we keep all New Yorkers safe.”
Dana Rubinstein covers New York City politics and government for The Times.
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