Zohran Mamdani paused for a moment, after I asked what he thought his inauguration—on January 1, as the 34-year-old, immigrant, Muslim, democratic socialist mayor of the nation’s largest city—might tell us about what is possible in American politics.

“That it lives,” he finally said. “That the days of us constructing an ever-lowering ceiling of possibility must come to an end. That we have to finally usher in an era where the ambition of our vision matches the scale of the crisis in front of us.”

When we spoke, a few days before his official swearing in by New York Attorney General Letitia James—scheduled to take place at midnight on January 1 in the old, decommissioned City Hall subway station, out of respect for what the incoming mayor calls “a physical monument to a city that dared to be both beautiful and build great things that would transform working peoples’ lives”—Mamdani reflected on the deeper roots of his political evolution.

For Mamdani, Thursday’s inauguration finishes the first stage of a political journey that in its narrowest sense began a little more than a year ago, when the then–State Assembly member from Queens entered a crowded race for mayor of New York as a candidate who was, he said, “definitely” unknown by the vast majority of the city’s voters. Now he is an internationally recognized political figure, who has met with leading members of Congress and—considering their deep ideological and stylistic differences—an unexpectedly cordial Donald Trump. Mamdani’s campaign and eventual election has inspired progressive candidates across the United States and beyond its borders. And his mayoralty, with the many challenges it faces, will test the limits and the possibilities of urban politics in the 21st century.

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At the celebration of his inauguration on the steps of City Hall on the afternoon of New Year’s Day, the new mayor will be introduced by US Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and ceremonially sworn in by Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders. Sanders, the former mayor of Burlington, Vermont, and a 2016 and 2020 contender for the Democratic presidential nomination, and who has reframed the modern understanding of democratic socialism in the United States, is delighted to be a part of the inaugural celebration. He was, alongside AOC,an enthusiastic supporter of Mamdani’s mayoral bid. “People want real change,” Sanders told me. “[Mamdani’s mayoralty] will inspire people across the country to fight for that change.”

For his part, Mamdani said, the senator’s presence on the steps of City Hall will offer a reminder of the role Sanders played in framing his understanding of electoral politics as a transformational pursuit.

“I would not be here, were it not for Bernie Sanders,” explained Mamdani. “He gave me the language with which to describe my own politics, a decade ago. It was his presidential campaign in 2016 that showed me and so many Americans across this country that we were not alone in in our belief in dignity as a necessity for each and every person who calls this country their home. And it’s frankly an honor for me that I will be on that stage with him as I begin this next chapter.”

Will Sanders’s presence also say something about their shared democratic socialism?

“I would hope so,” said Mamdani. “I’ve long been interested in politics, and yet it took his 2016 run for me to understand how to describe my own politics. And that was as a democratic socialist. In 2016, I was reading about Bernie. I was turning on the news to hear about Bernie. I was wishing, and willing in every which way, to see his success. In 2020, I knocked on doors for him in Iowa and took a photo with a cardboard cutout of him and shared that with friends. I thought that was probably the closest I would ever get to Bernie.”

Now he and Sanders have led rallies together. They frequently consult with each other. “To have been able to meet him, speak to him, and, frankly, more than all of that, be able to go to him for advice, for reflection, for guidance in a moment like this, it’s hard to describe how much it has meant to me,” Mamdani said.

Mamdani has long made it clear that the primary focus of his mayoralty will be the practical work of carrying out an ambitious agenda that makes the city more affordable and improves the lives of working-class New Yorkers. At the same time, he believes that his mayoralty can demonstrate how a democratic socialist vision could frame alternative policies for urban America. “I think it’s a beautiful part of our city, showing what politics can be in a time when it has become almost entirely associated with the language of darkness,” said Mamdani, who suggests that New York “could in fact be a showcase of light.”

“To be a democratic socialist leading our city,” he explained, “is an opportunity to lead with a vision that ensures that each and every New Yorker has whatever they need to live a dignified life—and to translate that belief into the day-to-day material realities of those who call the city home.”

The inaugural celebration will be a block party outside City Hall, where Mamdani plans to tell the crowd that “this is not my victory or my inauguration; rather, it’s all of ours.” For the many who gather, it will unite people under the shared vision of a New York City that could, indeed, serve as a light in the darkness of a political moment that, for the last year, has been profoundly influenced by the crude and frequently destructive social and economic policies of Trump’s MAGA Republicans in Washington.

“Life can never only be one thing,” said Mamdani. “It cannot simply be struggle; it cannot simply be laboring in the hopes of bread. You must also labor in the hopes of roses. January 1st is an opportunity for us to celebrate the immense amount of work it took from so many to usher in a new era in our city, and to also be honest about the challenges ahead of us. These are challenges that will be difficult, challenges that will require even more than what we have given thus far, and yet challenges that can still be approached with a joy of purpose—of delivering for the city that we all love and call home.”