The mayor of New York City is elected in early November every four years, in the year immediately following a United States presidential election year, and takes office at the beginning of the following year. New York City, which elects the mayor as its chief executive, consists of the five boroughs (Manhattan, The Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island), which consolidated to form "Greater" New York on January 1, 1898.
The consolidated city's first mayor, Robert A. Van Wyck, was elected with other municipal officers in November 1897. Mayoral elections previously had been held since 1834 by the City of Brooklyn and the smaller, unconsolidated City of New York (Manhattan, later expanded into the Bronx).
The current mayor is Zohran Mamdani, who was sworn in on January 1, 2026, after winning the 2025 mayoral election.
Overview Terms and term limits (since 1834) Direct elections to the mayoralty of the unconsolidated City of New York began in 1834 for a term of one year, extended to two years after 1849. The 1897 Charter of the consolidated City stipulated that the mayor was to be elected for a single four-year term. In 1901, the term halved to two years, with no restrictions on reelection. In 1905, the term was extended to four years once again. (Mayors Fiorello La Guardia, Robert F. Wagner Jr. and Ed Koch were later able to serve for twelve years each.)For further details, see Third Term No Charm, Historians Say by Sewell Chan, The New York Times "City Room", published and retrieved on October 1, 2008. In 1993, the voters approved a two-term (eight-year) limit, and reconfirmed this limit when the issue was submitted to referendum in 1996. In 2008, the New York City Council voted to change the two-term limit to three terms (without submitting the issue to the voters). Legal challenges to the council's action were rejected by Federal courts in January and April, 2009.Fernanda Santos: The Future of Term Limits Is in Court, The New York Times, New York edition, October 24, 2008, page A24 (retrieved on October 24, 2008), Judge Rejects Suit Over Term Limits, The New York Times, New York edition, January 14, 2009, page A26, and Appeals Court Upholds Term Limits Revision, The New York Times City Room Blog, April 28, 2009 (both retrieved on July 6, 2009). The original January decision by Judge Charles Sifton of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York (Long Island, Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island) was upheld by a three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit (Vermont, Connecticut and New York state). However, in 2010, yet another referendum, reverting the limit to two terms, passed overwhelmingly.
YearTermTermlimitYearsMayor(s) affected18341 year(no limit)(unlimited)all from Cornelius Van Wyck Lawrence to Caleb S. Woodhull18492 years(no limit)(unlimited)all from Ambrose Kingsland to William L. Strong118974 years1 term4 yearsRobert A. Van Wyck19012 years(no limit)(unlimited)Seth Low and George B. McClellan Jr.219054 years(no limit)(unlimited)all from George B. McClellan Jr.2 to David Dinkins319934 years2 terms8 yearsRudy Giuliani420084 years3 terms12 yearsMichael Bloomberg5 only620104 years2 terms8 yearsBill de Blasio and his successors6
Principal source: The Encyclopedia of New York City (see Sources below), entries for "charter" and "mayoralty". Mayor Strong, elected in 1894, served an extra year because no municipal election was held in 1896, in anticipation of the consolidated City's switch to odd-year elections. George B. McClellan Jr. was elected to one two-year term (1904–1905) and one four-year term (1906–1909) David Dinkins was not affected by the term limit enacted in 1993 because he had served only one term by 1993 and failed to win re-election. The September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center in Manhattan coincided with the primary elections for a successor to Mayor Giuliani, who was completing his second and final term of office. Many were so impressed by both the urgency of the situation and Giuliani's response that they wanted to keep him in office beyond December 31, 2001, either by removing the term limit or by extending his service for a few months.See, for example, these stories from The New York Times: "In Crisis Giuliani's Popularity Overflows City", by Jennifer Steinhauer, Sept. 20, 2001, "A Shift in the Ritual, and Meaning, of Voting", by Mirta Ojito, Sept. 26, 2001 and "Giuliani Explores a Term Extension of 2 or 3 Months", by Jennifer Steinhauer with Michael Cooper, September 27, 2001. However, neither happened, the primary elections (with the same candidates) were re-run on September 25, the general election was held as scheduled on November 6, and Michael Bloomberg took office on the regularly appointed date of January 1, 2002. On October 2, 2008, Michael Bloomberg announced that he would ask the city council to extend the limit for mayor, council and other officers from two terms to three, and that, should such an extended limit prevail, he himself would seek re-election as mayor.Sewell Chan, "Bloomberg Says He Wants a Third Term as Mayor", The New York Times, published and retrieved on October 2, 2008. On October 23, the New York City Council voted 29–22 to extend the two-term limit to three terms. (A proposed amendment to submit the vote to a public referendum had failed earlier the same day by a vote of 22–28 with one abstention.)Sewell Chan and Jonathan P. Hicks, "Council Votes, 29 to 22, to Extend Term Limits". City Room (blog). The New York Times, published on-line and retrieved on October 23, 2008. In November 2010, yet another popular referendum, limiting mayoral terms to two, passed overwhelmingly.
Interrupted terms of New York City's elected mayors since 1834 Mayors John T. Hoffman (1866–68, elected Governor 1868), William Havemeyer (1845–46, 1848–49, and 1873–74), William Jay Gaynor (1910–13), Jimmy Walker (1926–32), and William O'Dwyer (1946–50) failed to complete the final terms to which they were elected. The uncompleted mayoral terms of Hoffman, Walker, and O'Dwyer were added to the other offices elected in (respectively) 1868, 1932, and 1950 [those three elections are listed as "special" in the table below because they occurred before the next regularly scheduled mayoral election; the "regular" mayoral elections of 1874 and 1913, on the other hand, were held on the same day that they would have happened had the mayoralty not become vacant.]
Elected mayorLast electedEnd of serviceInterim successor†2, 3ElectionElected successor4John T. Hoffman (D)resigned 30 Nov. 1868Thomas Coman (D)Dec. 1868 (special)A. Oakey Hall (D)William Havemeyer (R)1died 30 Nov. 1874Samuel B. H. Vance (R)Nov. 1874 (regular)William H. Wickham (D)William Gaynor (D)died 10 Sept. 1913Ardolph L. Kline (R)Nov. 1913 (regular)John P. Mitchel (Fusion)Jimmy Walker (D)resigned 1 Sept. 1932Joseph V. McKee (D)Nov. 1932 (special)John P. O'Brien (D)William O'Dwyer (D)resigned 31 Aug. 1950Vincent Impellitteri (D)Nov. 1950 (special)Vincent Impellitteri(Experience)
† Became acting mayor as the president of the board of aldermen or (in 1950) city council.
(D) = (Democratic)
(R) = (Republican)
Havemeyer was a Democrat who ran as a Republican against the Democratic Tweed Ring in 1872. Coman, Vance and Kline did not seek election as mayor. McKee and Impellitteri were Democrats who lost the Democratic primary to succeed themselves, but still ran in the general election as independents. Hall won re-election, while Wickham did not seek it. Mitchel and O'Brien lost attempts at re-election, while Impellitteri did not run for a full term in the 1953 regular general election after losing the Democratic primary.
Summary tables Principal candidates' city-wide vote since 1897 The below table is a snapshot of the mayoral election results for major candidates, with each election year linking to more detailed sections on this page. The candidates have the ballot line they ran on in that election campaign, which may not always reflect their formal party affiliation during that time. The winning candidate is emphasized in bold face shaded in the color of their main ballot line. Candidates who were serving as the incumbent mayor at the time of the election (elected or acting) are in italics and an additional "(inc.)" notation.
A general summary of the table's abbreviated parties is: D = Democratic Party, R = Republican Party, Lib = Liberal Party, Cons = Conservative Party, Ind = Independent, Soc = Socialist Party of America, ALP = American Labor Party, WFP = Working Families Party, Independence = Independence Party, Jeff = Jeffersonian (George's 1897 campaign), Exp = Experience Party (Impellitteri's 1950 campaign), Jobs & Edu = Independent Jobs and Education Party (Bloomberg's 2009 campaign)
YearTotalDemocraticD Total (%)Major Third PartyThird Party Total (%)RepublicanR Total (%)Other major candidatesOther Total (%)1897523,560233,997 (44.7%), 151,540 (28.9%)101,863 (19.5%), 21,693 (4.1%)1901579,301265,177 (45.8%), 296,813 (51.2%), Social Democrat9,834 (1.7%)1903589,898314,782 (53.4%), 252,086 (42.7%), Social Democrat16,956 (2.9%)1905604,673228,407 (37.8%), 224,989 (37.2%)137,184 (22.7%), Socialist11,817 (2.0)1909594,902250,378 (42.1%), 154,187 (25.9%), 177,313 (29.8%), Soc.19,768 (2.0%)1913627,017233,919 (37.3%), 358,181 (57.1%), 32,057 (5.1%)1917673,300314,010 (46.6%), (inc.)155,497 (23.1%)56,438 (8.4%), 145,332 (21.6%)19211,168,767 (inc.)750,247 (64.2%), 332,846 (28.5%), 82,607 (7.1%)19251,137,966748,687 (65.8%)346,564 (30.5%), 39,574 (3.5%)19291,429,385 (inc.)867,522 (60.7%)367,675 (25.7%), 175,697 (12.3%)19321,990,8991,054,324 (53.0%), (inc.)241,899 (12.2%)443,020 (22.3%), 251,656 (12.6%)19332,152,505 (inc.)586,672 (27.3%), 609,053 (28.3%), 868,522 (40.4%), 59,846 (3.0%)19372,235,386, 890,756 (39.8%), (inc.) |style="background:#fcc;" |1,344,630 (60.2%)|
!1941 |style="background:#ddd;" |2,263,369 | |1,054,235 (46.6%)
|style="background:#fdd;" |, (inc.) |style="background:#fcc;" |1,186,518 (52.4%)|, Soc. |24,145 (1.1%)
!1945 |style="background:#ddd;" |1,982,361 |style="background:#9df;" |, |style="background:#9cf;" |1,125,357 (55.3%)|, |408,348 (20.6%) |, |431,601 (21.2%) |, Soc. |9,304 (0.5%
!1949 |style="background:#ddd;" |2,591,684