Zohran Mamdani vowed Tuesday night during his victory address to “turn the page” on old-guard New York City Democrats. But within less than 24 hours, the mayor-elect of New York City announced a transition team comprised of folks with ties to the administrations of Bill de Blasio, Eric Adams, Michael Bloomberg and Joe Biden.
“Let tonight be the final time I utter [Andrew Cuomo’s] name as we turn the page on a politics that abandons the many and answers only to the few,” Mamdani said Tuesday evening as he touted a new political order for New York City at his victory address at the Brooklyn Paramount theater. The next morning, Mamdani named an all-female transition team comprised of four co-chairs and an executive director.
The co-chairs are Maria Torres-Springer, a former top aide under former mayors de Blasio and Michael Bloomberg and soon-to-be former Mayor Adams; Lina Khan, the Biden administration’s Federal Trade Commission chair; Melanie Hartzog, a former New York City budget director who served as the deputy mayor for Health and Human Services under de Blasio; and Grace Bonilla, a former Bloomberg and de Blasio aide appointed to lead the former’s task force on racial equity and Inclusion. Elana Leopold, a former senior aide to de Blasio, was tapped to be the transition team’s executive director.
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Fox News Digital reached out to Mamdani for comment but did not get a response in time for publication.
Former New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio (left), Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg (center) and soon-to-be former mayor Eric Adams. (Getty Images)
“The polls have barely closed, and already the incoming mayor is breaking one of his core promises to shake up the status quo and usher in a new day. New York City started a downward spiral under the de Blasio administration, and now some of its main players are returning to the halls of power,” said Republican strategist Colin Reed.
“And former FTC Chair Lina Khan became synonymous with her hostility toward businesses large and small during the Biden administration and one of the ringleaders of Bidenomics.”
Khan, in particular, has been accused of sidelining career staff in favor of fresh blood from a cadre of dark money nonprofits, which coincided with a forceful antitrust strategy that mirrored the organizations’ goals. The FTC, under Khan’s leadership, credited individuals brought up from these nonprofits for help in crafting policy and messaging in posts on its website and in a report to Congress in 2022.
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Zohran Mamdani, mayor-elect of New York, center, joined by members of his transition team, from left, Elana Leopold, transition executive director; Melanie Hartzog, transition co-chair; Maria Torres-Springer, transition co-chair; Grace Bonilla, transition co-chair; and Lina Khan, transition co-chair, speaks to members of the media at Flushing Meadows Corona Park in the Queens borough of New York Wednesday, Nov. 5, 2025. (Adam Gray/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Mamdani, a New York state assemblymember who ran as the Democratic candidate for New York City mayor, defeated former Empire State Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa in the Big Apple’s mayoral contest.
“My friends, we have toppled a political dynasty,” Mamdani said in his victory speech Tuesday night. “Tonight you have delivered a mandate for change. A mandate for a new kind of politics. A mandate for a city we can afford. And a mandate for a government that delivers exactly that.”
During Mamdani’s victory speech Tuesday night, the mayor-elect also slammed corporate interests, telling his supporters New Yorkers have been betrayed by those elected officials who care more about their own enrichment.
“We refuse to let them dictate the rules of the game anymore,” he said. “They can play by the same rules as the rest of us.”
Mamdani’s election victory was being cheered by Alex Soros, the son of billionaire philanthropist George Soros, who has helped fund left-wing campaigns stretching from district attorneys to federal elections. In 2022, the younger Soros succeeded his father as chair of the board of directors of the massive $25 billion Open Society Foundations he runs his activism through.
Alex Soros, son of billionaire megadonor George Soros, congratulates Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani on his New York City election victory. (X/@AlexSoros)
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Alex Soros’ support of Mamdani is not a surprise, with the Open Society Foundations reportedly donating $37 million in the last decade to left-wing groups that promoted Mamdani’s nomination this year, such as the Working Families Party, the New York Post reported in July.
Fox News Digital’s Greg Norman and Emma Colton contributed to this report.
