Zoran Mamdani

The governor had said that 2026 would be the year of child care.

We ran a campaign.

14 months speaking about the importance of delivering universal childcare.

And now together, the two of us are showing in her words that the era of empty promises is over.

And what we are doing is delivering for the very families who had been considering leaving the city and showing them that it's actually gonna be easier to raise their kids right here across the five boroughs.

I think we are showing them that politics can be different than what it has been.

We are showing them that when we dare to dream of a world that is better than this, that's the first step in not just fighting for it, but winning it.

And today's victory is frankly a testament to the more than 100,000 people who

made millions of phone calls over the course of that campaign, who knocked on millions of doors and spoke to so many New Yorkers about their dream of a city that they deserved.

They willed this day into existence because, as you said, there were so many who told us that we could never get here.

But in the words of Nelson Mandela, it always seems impossible until it's done.

And today is that first step to ensuring that we deliver universal child care for each and every New Yorker.

You know, I think there is something to say that a lot of New Yorkers have lost faith in democracy, not because of losing faith in the ideal of it, but rather losing faith in its ability to deliver on their material needs as working class individuals.

And what we're seeing right now is that if you lay out a vision that matches the scale of the crisis at hand, and then you deliver on that vision, you will see far more New Yorkers looking at politics as something that is relevant to their day-to-day lives, as opposed to something that they should take as much distance as they can from.

And I think that's the case across this country where so many are asking themselves, is there an answer to the struggles that they're living through?

And what we're showing here in New York City is when it comes to childcare, there is.

And now the agenda continues, the work continues because each and every day is gonna be focused on how can we take on the cost of living crisis that has made this the most expensive city in the United States of America.

Well, I think, especially speaking to you today, when we've accomplished such a significant part of what was one of the cornerstones of our campaign, there's a temptation to think that governance is only about the issues that are as large as our city, when in fact, governance is also about showing that there's no issue too small.

And a few days ago, I was sitting around

our conference table with our cabinet, and we were talking about the different things that we could be doing in our first 100 days.