- Former FTC Chair Lina Khan is helping run Zohran Mamdani’s transition team.
- Many on Wall Street and in Silicon Valley have sharply criticized Khan for her antitrust agenda.
- Khan called Mamdani’s victory a blow to “outsized corporate power” in a speech on Wednesday.
Zohran Mamdani hasn’t been New York City’s mayoral-elect for 24 hours yet, but his postelection decisions are already likely rattling big business.
Former Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan — whose regulatory moves angered many corporate leaders — has been named as one of the co-chairs of Mamdani’s transition team.
“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 in a speech on Wednesday.
During her time leading the FTC under former President Joe Biden, Khan drew the ire of many on Wall Street and in Silicon Valley. Her ambitious anti-trust agenda targeted Amazon and Meta, among others. She is described as “the nation’s leading antimonopoly champion” on Mamdani’s transition website.
Mamdani won New York City’s mayoral race handily last night, in a blow to the billionaires who spent big to try to keep him out of office. Business leaders who criticized the democratic socialist less than a day ago have offered to help him run the nation’s center of capitalism, including outspoken Mamdani critic Bill Ackman.
Khan will lead Mamdani’s team alongside former First Deputy Mayor Maria Torres-Springer, nonprofit leader Grace Bonilla, and city budget expert Melanie Hartzog.
