Mamdani Chooses a Bernie Sanders Aide as His Communications Director

Anna Bahr, who leads communications for the Vermont senator and worked on his presidential campaign, is the latest appointee to a high-profile role in the Mamdani administration.

During his winning campaign for mayor, Zohran Mamdani consistently held up Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont as the political hero who inspired him to become a democratic socialist.

Now in office, Mr. Mamdani is not only leaning on Mr. Sanders, who swore him in at his inauguration last week, for advice. He is also tapping into Mr. Sanders’s vast network of current and former aides to staff his administration.

Mr. Sanders’s communications director, Anna Bahr, will head to City Hall to serve in that post for Mr. Mamdani, he confirmed on Monday. Her appointment will round out the upper ranks of the new mayor’s City Hall, as he prepares for a hectic few months of negotiations in Albany over the city’s budget and central pieces of his campaign platform.

“Mayor Mamdani is modeling a different kind of government — not a billionaire-funded, consultant-driven administration, but one that champions the needs of working people,” Ms. Bahr, 33, said in a written statement. “It’s what New Yorkers deserve and I’m proud to be part of his team.”

Mr. Mamdani also announced that Joe Calvello, 33, a former aide to Mr. Sanders, will serve as his administration’s press secretary, overseeing the communications of all city departments. Mr. Calvello more recently served as an adviser to Senator John Fetterman, Democrat of Pennsylvania.

Mr. Mamdani said he was “thrilled” to have Ms. Bahr and Mr. Calvello “join our fight to take on the oligarchy and deliver a city that’s truly affordable.”

“For this administration, communication is more than a political tactic, it’s fundamental to our belief that every single New Yorker deserves a place in our politics,” Mr. Mamdani said.

The hires underscore the mayor’s desire to tap into the national movement of progressives, led by Mr. Sanders, who are angry over economic inequality. With their singular focus on that anger, both Mr. Sanders and Mr. Mamdani have found a way to excite these voters, many of whom are young and, in Mr. Mamdani’s case, cast their first ballots for New York City mayor last year.

“He was a mayor who ran with a message that Burlington is not for sale,” Mr. Mamdani said in September of Mr. Sanders, who served four terms as the mayor of the Vermont city early in his career. “We are running with a message that New York City is not for sale.”

Mr. Mamdani has spoken proudly about how in 2019 he held his first canvassing event for his State Assembly campaign outside a Sanders rally. “There are echoes and parallels, and an inspiration in the work that he has done,” he said of Mr. Sanders in September.

Ms. Bahr, a Los Angeles native, has served as the top communications aide in Mr. Sanders’s Senate office since 2024 and previously worked on his 2020 presidential campaign.

She will oversee the Mamdani administration’s press office, communications strategy, communications for city departments and Mr. Mamdani’s new media efforts.

The Mamdani campaign gained traction in part by reaching voters — many new to politics — with irreverent and entertaining videos that were shared across social media.

Several alums of Mr. Mamdani’s campaign are also on track to join his administration as well. The campaign’s deputy communications director, Lekha Sunder, 26, is expected to hold the same role in the administration, while Julian Gerson, 29, who helped write many of Mr. Mamdani’s most memorable speeches, is expected to serve as his director of speechwriting, three people familiar with the matter said.

And Dora Pekec, 25, who served as the top communications aide for the campaigns of both Brad Lander, the former comptroller, and Mr. Mamdani, is expected to be the administration’s senior spokeswoman.

In addition to advising Mr. Sanders, Ms. Bahr has worked for Eric Garcetti, the former mayor of Los Angeles, and briefly on the campaign of his successor, Karen Bass. Early in her career, she spent a year working for The Upshot section of The New York Times.

Ahead of his inauguration, Mr. Mamdani sought the advice of Mr. Sanders, Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, who have all taken part in transition meetings and planning in recent weeks. Mr. Mamdani has also sought to hire acolytes of Mr. Sanders, including Lina Khan, the former chair of the Federal Trade Commission who served as a co-chair of his transition.

He appointed Samuel Levine, one of Ms. Khan’s former top lieutenants, as the head of the city’s consumer and worker protection agency. And he chose Julie Su, a former acting secretary of labor and an ally of Mr. Sanders and Ms. Khan, to be the deputy mayor for economic justice.

The hires reflect how Mr. Mamdani is surrounding himself with aides who want to use the mayoralty’s executive and regulatory powers to lower costs and protect workers, rather than relying solely on the approval of lawmakers in City Hall and Albany.

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