NEW YORK (1010 WINS) — While millions of New Yorkers are counting down to 2026, Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani will be sworn in underground during a private midnight ceremony, his transition team announced Monday.
New York Attorney General Letitia James will administer the Oath of Office alongside Mamdani’s family at the Old City Hall subway station, making the transfer of power officials as he is ushered into office.
“When I take my oath from the station at the dawn of the New Year, I will do so humbled by the opportunity to lead millions of New Yorkers into a new era of opportunity, and honored to carry forward our city’s legacy of greatness,” the mayor-elect said.
The station, located under City Hall Park, first opened in 1904 as one of the city’s 28 original stations. It was decommissioned in 1945 as the system modernized, but was designated an NYC landmark in 1979 and a National Register of Historic Places site in 2004.
“It was a physical monument to a city that dared to be both beautiful and build great things that would transform working peoples’ lives,” Mamdani said. “That ambition need not be a memory confined only to our past, nor must it be isolated only to the tunnels beneath City Hall: it will be the purpose of the administration fortunate enough to serve New Yorkers from the building above.”
Mamdani will hold a public swearing in ceremony—which he dubbed the “Inauguration of a New Era”—on the steps of City Hall in the afternoon on New Year's Day. It will coincide with a block party up Broadway with dedicated viewing areas, which opens the event up to any New Yorker hoping to participate.
The public event will be held at 1 p.m., and Mamdani will be sworn in by Sen. Bernie Sanders.