A familiar face will be helping Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani set up his new administration before he takes office in 2026. Lina Khan, former Federal Trade Commission Chair under President Joe Biden, has been officially announced as one of Mamdani's transition co-chairs, alongside Grace Bonilla, Maria Torres-Springer and Melanie Hartzog.
Mamdani's platform is focused on affordability, with fighting corporate corruption a key way he hopes to lower prices for New Yorkers. Mamdani's proposed policies include working to ban hidden fees and non-compete clauses, while funding challenges to utility company rate hikes. It's not surprising that Khan and Mamdani would be aligned. As Chair, Khan is best known for trying to rebuild the FTC's anti-monopolist backbone, but she was similarly interested in banning non-compete clauses and hidden junk fees. Khan has also publicly expressed her appreciation for the Mamdani campaign's focus on small businesses in The New York Times Opinion section.
"I think what we saw last night was New Yorkers not just electing a new mayor, but clearly rejecting a politics where outsized corporate power and money too often end up dictating our politics," Khan said at a press conference announcing her new role. "And a clear mandate for change, where New Yorkers can get ahead and where all workers and small businesses can thrive, not just get by."
While Mamdani has served as a New York state assemblyman, his relative lack of experience has been used as a consistent criticism of his candidacy for mayor. Clearly, that didn't matter to voters, but Mamdani's chosen transition team members suggest he plans to surround himself with people who are experienced. In the case of Khan, that includes a transition co-chair who’s willing to be openly critical of corporate power. The Trump administration has effectively remade the FTC in its image, but there's more than one place the influence of big businesses can be checked.