For the very biggest decisions in his run for mayor of New York City, Zohran Mamdani typically relies on just two trusted advisers. One is 28. The other is 34.
His plans for free buses and policing were written with the help of other policy aides who, like him, cut their teeth in the Democratic Socialists of America.
And until recently, few of the people closest to him had ever worked in city government.
If a politician’s inner circle reflects the kind of government he or she would create if elected, then the group around Mr. Mamdani, a 33-year-old assemblyman and the Democratic nominee, foreshadows a very different City Hall from previous mayors.
Like Mr. Mamdani, his aides are notably younger and farther left than advisers in rival campaigns. Few hail from the Democratic establishment; many have spent years fighting it. Several advisers bring long track records working on affordability and the concerns of growing immigrant groups. And as he seeks to make history as the city’s first Muslim mayor, Mr. Mamdani has surrounded himself with both Muslim advisers and Jewish aides.
But to an unusual degree, Mr. Mamdani’s orbit is still in flux. While youth may have been a feature of his success to date, the Democrat has been blunt that building an administration to run a city of eight million will require new expertise and a larger coalition. He has already begun seeking the counsel of more seasoned city hands, and has asked Elle Bisgaard-Church, his top adviser, to oversee a hiring spree.
Here is a guide to the insiders who could shape his mayoralty.
The inner circle
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Elle Bisgaard-Church
Chief adviser
Ms. Bisgaard-Church, 34, served as campaign manager during the primary. Since then, she has been been responsible for laying the groundwork for a mayoral administration. A California native and a D.S.A. member, Ms. Bisgaard-Church was new to politics when she took a job as Mr. Mamdani’s chief of staff straight out of graduate school. Now, she is widely seen as his right hand and expected to play a major role in City Hall if he wins.
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Morris Katz
Senior adviser
An ad maker and political strategist, Mr. Katz, 28, has said he was skeptical of Mr. Mamdani’s long-shot campaign when they first met last summer. But he quickly became indispensable to the assemblyman’s political rise. Recently, Mr. Katz has also helped serve as an emissary to Jewish leaders who remain uneasy with Mr. Mamdani’s pro-Palestinian views. His clients also include Dan Osborn, a union steamfitter, who ran a surprisingly close race for Senate in right-leaning Nebraska.
Family
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Mira Nair
Mother, filmmaker
Mahmood Mamdani
Father, Columbia professor
Mr. Mamdani has said he owes his parents everything, “not simply the person that I am, but the thoughts that I have.” His mother, Ms. Nair, is an Oscar-nominated filmmaker whose movies include “Monsoon Wedding,” “Salaam Bombay!” and “Mississippi Masala.” She hired her son out of college as a music supervisor. Mr. Mamdani has an endowed professorship at Columbia, where he is a leading scholar of post-colonialism.
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Rama Duwaji
Wife, illustrator
Ms. Duwaji, a 27-year-old animator and illustrator of Syrian descent, married Mr. Mamdani earlier this year. Ms. Duwaji has avoided public attention, although she contributed to some of her husband’s campaign’s videos. The couple met on the dating app Hinge and traveled to Uganda in July to belatedly celebrate their marriage.
Campaign staff
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Zara Rahim
Senior adviser
Ms. Rahim, a well-connected communications specialist, has helped build Mr. Mamdani’s cachet with the city’s cool set. A veteran of Vogue, Uber and Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, she has connected Mr. Mamdani with celebrities and honed his media profile. Ms. Rahim is also an important pro-Palestinian voice in campaign discussions about Gaza.
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Andrew Epstein
Creative director (former spokesman)
Mr. Epstein, a former chief of staff in the State Assembly, served as the campaign’s main spokesman during the primary and oversaw the production of a series of viral videos that helped Mr. Mamdani elevate his profile. Mr. Epstein, 38, is now the campaign’s creative director, working full time with a team of video producers. They include Donald Borenstein, Debbie Saslaw, Olivia Becker and Anthony DiMieri, who captured Mr. Mamdani’s policy proposals in videos that received millions of views.
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Julian Gerson
Speechwriter (former political director)
Mr. Gerson, 28, served as Mr. Mamdani’s political director during the primary. A former aide to Representative Jerrold Nadler of New York and Gov. Kathy Hochul, he has shifted to be the campaign’s chief speechwriter, giving voice to Mr. Mamdani’s distinctive policy platform.
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Tascha Van Auken
Field director
Ms. Van Auken built Mr. Mamdani’s field operation. The campaign amassed a staggering 50,000 volunteers, who helped drive a sharp increase in turnout among younger voters in the primary. She is a veteran organizer affiliated with D.S.A. and once worked for Blue Man Group, a musical performance art company.
The brain trust
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Mr. Najmi is a close friend of the candidate and was the campaign’s lawyer during the primary. With Mr. Mamdani, he was a leader of the Muslim Democratic Club of New York. Mr. Najmi is a criminal defense lawyer whose unsuccessful 2015 campaign for City Council was the first time Mr. Mamdani got involved in city politics.
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Amanda Septimo
State assemblywoman
A state assemblywoman from the Bronx, Ms. Septimo did not endorse in the primary, but she is another key behind-the-scenes gut-check for Mr. Mamdani on political and policy questions. The two are around the same age and both threw themselves into a 2021 campaign to help taxi drivers secure a debt relief program.
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Cea Weaver
Housing advocate
Ms. Weaver, a tenant organizer and D.S.A. member, advised Mr. Mamdani on housing policy, including his push to freeze rents on stabilized apartments. She is the director of the New York State Tenant Bloc, a nonprofit group that has pushed for tenant protections in Albany.
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Faiza Ali
Muslim Democratic Club leader
Ms. Ali is longtime ally who worked with Mr. Mamdani as a leader of the Muslim Democratic Club of New York, a progressive group. She works for the City Council and previously was at the Council on American-Islamic Relations.
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Mr. Singh is the political director of a group called DRUM Beats, which works with the South Asian and Indo-Caribbean communities and was one of the first groups to endorse Mr. Mamdani for mayor. He worked with Mr. Mamdani at Chhaya, a community development group that helps families facing foreclosure, and he worked with Mr. Mamdani on securing debt relief for taxi drivers.
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Murad Awawdeh
New York Immigration Coalition leader
Mr. Awawdeh, the president and chief executive of the New York Immigration Coalition, serves as a regular late-night sounding board for Mr. Mamdani. He helped shape the campaign’s policy platform and build its novel coalition of young voters, South Asians and other immigrant groups.
The growing circle
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Patrick Gaspard
Democratic wise man
Mr. Gaspard, a former Obama aide and City Hall veteran, has served as an informal adviser and emissary to New York power players. He helped broker a cross-endorsement with Brad Lander, the city comptroller, and has accompanied the candidate to key meetings with business titans, Black New Yorkers and party leaders, like Ms. Hochul.
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Maya Handa
Campaign manager
Afua Atta-Mensah
Political director
Jeffrey Lerner
Communications director
Ms. Handa only joined the campaign in late July, after managing State Senator Zellnor Myrie’s losing mayoral bid. She has a track record of managing progressive campaigns, and worked with Mr. Mamdani during his time in the Assembly. Ms. Atta-Mensah joined the campaign around the same time with a mandate to help Mr. Mamdani expand his support among Black New Yorkers. She came from the progressive advocacy group Community Change. Mr. Lerner, a seasoned Washington operative who once worked for Mr. Gaspard, took over the campaign’s communications team after the primary.
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Dean Fuleihan
Former first deputy mayor
Mr. Fuleihan, a de Blasio administration alumnus, serves as a behind-the-scenes adviser to Mr. Mamdani and Ms. Bisgaard-Church as they prepare for a potential transition to office. He is viewed as an experienced City Hall veteran who understands the ins and outs of governing. He was Mr. de Blasio’s first deputy mayor and served in other high-level positions in city and state government.
Key allies
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Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
Congresswoman
In many ways, Ms. Ocasio-Cortez’s upset primary victory in 2018 was a template for Mr. Mamdani. Both are members of D.S.A. and represent overlapping districts. The congresswoman’s well-timed endorsement helped push the left to consolidate around Mr. Mamdani. She has been a personal sounding board since, coaching him through the pressures of achieving political stardom at a young age and introducing him to fellow Democrats in Washington.
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Brad Lander
N.Y.C. comptroller
Mr. Lander, the city comptroller, made a critical cross-endorsement with Mr. Mamdani that helped boost him in the homestretch of the primary. The city’s highest-ranking Jewish official, he has defended Mr. Mamdani from accusations of antisemitism and served as an attack dog criticizing Mr. Cuomo. Mr. Lander is widely expected to be considered for a high-level position in a Mamdani administration.
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Nydia Velázquez
Congresswoman
Letitia James
New York attorney general
Ms. Velázquez, the first Puerto Rican woman in Congress, played a key role in validating Mr. Mamdani as a serious candidate in the primary and expanding his outreach among Latinos. Ms. James, the state attorney general, appeared with Mr. Mamdani at a rally during the final days of the primary, comparing him to Barack Obama, and has emerged as one of his most important emissaries to skeptical Democrats and Black voters. She is also advising him to keep Jessica Tisch as police commissioner.
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Jabari Brisport
State senator
Michael Gianaris
State Senate leader
Micah Lasher
State assemblyman
Many of Mr. Mamdani’s biggest plans will only come to fruition with support from the State Legislature. A circle of state lawmakers could be key to securing it. Mr. Brisport, a state senator from Brooklyn and fellow democratic socialist, is perhaps Mr. Mamdani’s closest friend in Albany; the two were roommates there for years. But Mr. Gianaris, the deputy Senate majority leader, may be his most powerful ally; the two represent overlapping districts and have collaborated on legislation including a pilot for free buses. Mr. Lasher, an assemblyman from Manhattan, has become a liaison to Jewish New Yorkers and brings connections from his days as Ms. Hochul’s policy adviser.
Institutional support
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Ana María Archila
Working Families Party co-director
Gustavo Gordillo
D.S.A. co-chair
Grace Mausser
D.S.A. co-chair
Ms. Archila, a co-director of the left-leaning Working Families Party in New York, helped run a campaign to defeat Mr. Cuomo in the primary. The group will be central to both Mr. Mamdani’s general election and governing coalitions, should he be elected. Mr. Mamdani’s success has also elevated the D.S.A. to a level of influence it has not previously seen. Its city leaders, Mr. Gordillo and Ms. Mausser, are key political advisers and can be expected to fight for many of Mr. Mamdani’s leftist policy proposals as he broadens his coalition.
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Henry Garrido
Union leader
Mr. Garrido, the executive director of District Council 37, has been an emissary for Mr. Mamdani among the city’s powerful labor leaders and will be a key negotiating partner if Mr. Mamdani becomes mayor. His group is the city’s largest municipal union. The union ranked Mr. Mamdani second on its slate in the primary, helping give his campaign legitimacy in a crowded field.