Lina Khan will co-chair the transition team for New York Mayor-elect Zahran Mamdani

After Zahran Mamdani won the New York City mayoral race on Tuesday night, his campaign announced that former Federal Trade Commission Chairwoman Lina Khan will be one of the four co-chairs of the transition team.

Khan was an ally of Mamdani, and praised him in a New York Times op-ed about his outreach to small business owners. But her appointment to an official role on his transition team sends a message to Wall Street and the tech industry, whose most powerful players have already criticized Mamdani, a democratic socialist who has upset the tech elite by criticizing billionaires and proposing a 2% tax on income above $1 million.

“What we saw last night is that New Yorkers were not only electing a new mayor, they were clearly rejecting a policy in which the power and money of big corporations too often ends up dictating our policies,” Khan said in a speech on Wednesday.

Khan called Mamdani’s victory “a clear mandate for change where New Yorkers can move forward, and where all workers and small businesses can thrive — not just survive.”

Airbnb co-founder Joe Gebbia, as well as investors such as Bill Ackman and Mike Bloomberg, have spent millions of dollars opposing Mamdani and defending former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, who finished second in the polls. DoorDash also gave $1 million to a pro-Cuomo super PAC. However, Mamdani called for greater regulation of delivery apps and protections for its subcontracted gig workers.

Like Mamdani, Khan has enemies in high places. An outspoken critic of tech giants like Amazon, Microsoft, Meta, and Google, Khan moved to block several high-profile tech mergers during her time in the Biden administration. When those measures failed, many in Silicon Valley continued to blame Khan for slowing the flow of buyouts.

Even those who supported the Biden-Harris presidential ticket, such as Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn, and billionaire investor Vinod Khosla, have publicly expressed their criticism of Khan; In an interview with TechCrunch editor-in-chief Connie Loizos last year, Khosla described Khan as “not a rational human being.”

Khan, a professor at Columbia Law School, is described as “the nation’s leading antitrust champion” on Mamdani’s transition website.

In addition to Khan, the other three co-chairs are Grace Bonilla, president and CEO of the nonprofit United Way in New York City; Maria Torres Springer, former First Deputy Mayor of New York City; and Melanie Hartzog, president and CEO of the nonprofit New York Foundling.

The four will be led by Ilana Leopold, a Mamdani campaign adviser who has held various senior positions in Bill de Blasio’s mayoral administration.

“Lena is focused on preparing to help with the transition in economic policy and personnel,” Douglas Farrar, Khan’s spokesman, told TechCrunch.

Updated 11/5/25 at 2:20pm ET with comment from Douglas Farrar.