Julie Menin was elected the City Council’s new speaker Wednesday, making her the chamber’s first Jewish leader — a historic moment she pledged to use to bridge political “divides,” even amid emerging signs of potential friction between her and Mayor Mamdani.
Menin’s speakership selection was solidified in a unanimous 51-0 vote by the Council’s members at their first meeting of 2026.
As speaker, Menin will face pressure, especially from moderates and conservatives, to act as a check on Mamdani. Before voting for Menin, the Council’s five Republicans delivered speeches specifically urging her to resist Mamdani, including Brooklyn’s Inna Vernikov, who said the new speaker “must be a check on his radical, Marxist agenda.”
Julie Menin is sworn in as Speaker of the New York City Council on Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2025, at City Hall. (Emil Cohen / NYC Council Media Unit)
In remarks after the vote, Menin, a more centrist Democrat than Mamdani, focused on striking a unifying tone.
“We live in a day when the first Muslim mayor of New York City, and the first Jewish speaker of this Council, are serving at the same time. This moment truly is historic,” Menin, who didn’t endorse Mamdani’s mayoral run, said to applause.
“But what will write this interfaith leadership into the history books is if it can act as an opportunity for all of us to come together — to calm tensions, to bridge divides, and to recognize we are one city, no matter the religion we practice or the language we speak.”
The Upper East Side Democrat also homed in on some areas of agreement with Mamdani, specifically child care, which the mayor promised during the campaign to make free for all kids between 6 weeks and 5 years.
“We have worked to take the first steps to enact universal child care — and by working with the mayor and governor, we can truly make it a reality,” she said.
Julie Menin is sworn in as Speaker of the New York City Council on Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2025, at City Hall. (Emil Cohen / NYC Council Media Unit)
In a press conference after the vote, Menin declined to offer support for Mamdani’s other core promises: Freezing rent for the city’s 2 million stabilized tenants, making public buses free and increasing taxes on corporations and millionaires.
She said she wouldn’t opine on those matters because she argued the Council doesn’t have a role in them, with stabilized rents being set by a mayorally controlled board while the bus and taxation questions rely on state action. In terms of child care, she said she’s chiming in because she sees a role for the Council to allocate funding for it by finding “savings” across the municipal bureaucracy.
“What I’m going to focus on is where the Council can actually contribute to the affordability agenda,” she said.
“Of course there will be areas of disagreement,” she added when asked about her Republican colleagues’ expectations for her. “That happens in every single City Council-administration relationship.”
Julie Menin is sworn in as Speaker of the New York City Council on Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2025, at City Hall. (John McCarten / NYC Council Media Unit)
Mamdani didn’t attend Wednesday’s vote, though his first deputy mayor, Dean Fuleihan, and intergovernmental affairs director, Jahmila Edwards, were on hand.
“Together, we will work to tackle the cost-of-living crisis, protect workers and consumers, and restore belief in city government,” Mamdani said in a statement on Menin’s election.
The proposed tax hikes — some of which Gov. Hochul openly opposes — are especially critical for Mamdani, as he has said he needs them to generate enough new revenue to fund his affordability platform.
While she may not have a direct role in enacting several Mamdani policy pledges, his Albany agenda could benefit from bully pulpit assistance from Menin.
Brooklyn Councilwoman Crystal Hudson, a Mamdani-aligned Democrat who was Menin’s main challenger in the speaker’s race, suggested she still expects many Council progressives to push aggressively for the mayor’s priorities.
“I know many in this body are committed to delivering that agenda and will fight tooth-and-nail to enact it over the next four years,” Hudson said before stressing she hopes all local leaders are willing to “share power.”
Julie Menin is sworn in as Speaker of the New York City Council on Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2025, at City Hall. (Emil Cohen / NYC Council Media Unit)
As for Council business, Menin and Mamdani are expected to soon begin negotiating this year’s city budget. Among potential sticking points in those talks could be public safety.
Mamdani has pledged to keep the NYPD’s officer headcount flat and allocate $1 billion for a proposed new agency, the Department of Community Safety, that’d absorb certain functions from the police, like handling mental health calls. Menin hasn’t said publicly where she stands on the DCS proposal, but the Daily News reported in November she has privately affirmed she won’t be a rubber-stamp on the plan.
On a macro level, projections show big city budget deficits for the coming fiscal year, which starts July 1, an outlook that may require Mamdani and Menin to find new revenue or make cuts in order to balance the spending plan. That picture is made more complicated by federal funding cuts from President Trump’s administration.
Another potential flash point in the relationship between Menin and Mamdani is Israel’s war in Gaza.
Mamdani, a longtime advocate for Palestinian rights, has accused Israel of committing a genocide in Gaza.
Menin is a supporter of Israel and has voiced concern about pro-Palestinian protests in the city, saying they fan the flames of antisemitism. She made brief reference to that concern in her speech, saying, “We must never jeopardize a New Yorker’s right to worship.”
“Because we cannot let what happened outside Park East Synagogue ever happen again, at any house of worship,” Menin said, a reference to a raucous pro-Palestinian rally that took place outside that Manhattan temple in November.
After the Park East incident, a Mamdani spokeswoman said he discourages “the language” used at the protest but also believes the synagogue shouldn’t promote “activities in violation of international law,” a reference to a Zionist group that hosted an event inside the temple during the protest.
Menin’s election was a foregone conclusion, as she announced in late November she had secured support from a supermajority of her colleagues.
First elected to the Council in 2021, Menin previously worked as Consumer Affairs commissioner under ex-Mayor Bill de Blasio.