Zohran Mamdani Sworn in as NYC Mayor

While we in the Sunshine State were ringing in 2026 with fireworks and a renewed commitment to the constitutional values that keep Florida free, our neighbors to the north were witnessing a very different kind of spectacle. In the first minutes of the New Year, Zohran Mamdani was sworn in as the 111th (or 112th) Mayor of New York City.

It wasn't just the fact that he is a self-described democratic socialist (though that should be enough to give any taxpayer a cold sweat) - It was the optics of the ceremony itself: held in a decommissioned, abandoned subway station, with his hand resting not on the Bible that has undergirded American jurisprudence for centuries… but on the Quran.

Now, the fake-news legacy media will tell you this is a beautiful moment of "inclusion." They’ll gush over the symbolism of a 34-year-old African-born socialist taking power. But for those of us who still believe in the core values that made this country great, it's a bad omen.

Choosing to take an oath of office on a text that represents a radical departure from the values of our Founding Fathers is a signal. It tells us that the leadership in America's largest city no longer feels bound by the historical and spiritual guardrails that built this nation. When you trade the Bible for a Quran, you aren't just "making history"; you are signaling a descent.

The choice of venue being the Old City Hall subway station is a little bit poetic. It’s fitting that a platform built on rent freezes and "free" everything would be inaugurated in a dark hole in the ground. Socialism always starts with lofty promises in the dark and ends with the taxpayers footing the bill for a system that eventually collapses under its own weight. But we’ve seen this movie before. In Florida, we choose the light. We choose the open sunshine of the free market and the clear moral clarity of the Constitution. We don't need "subterranean" politics or symbolic gestures that alienate the very foundations of the American experiment.

Our leaders should not harbor resentment towards our founding values. Let's not forget that Mamdani's campaign platform explicitly states that he intends to tax "whiter neighborhoods" at a higher rate than everyone else.

This is a warning shot for every conservative in Florida. The radical Left isn't just winning in the ivory towers of academia anymore; they are taking the keys to our most iconic cities. If you think the "New York way" won't try to find a foothold in Tallahassee or Panama City, you’re mistaken.

They want to replace our traditions with theirs. They want to swap our prosperity for their "equity." Not on my watch. This New Year, let’s fight to keep Florida free.