New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani tapped a longtime Bernie Sanders staffer and former New York Times reporter as his communications director, his administration confirmed Monday.
Anna Bahr, 33, will oversee the newly sworn-in mayor’s entire communications department, which so far includes Mamdani’s speechwriter Julian Gerson, his current deputy communications director Lekha Sunder, his campaign communications aide Dora Pekec, and Sanders’ former aide Joe Calvello.
Calvello, 33, who most recently served in Sen. John Fetterman’s admin, will handle communications for all agencies. Sunder, 26, will serve as the deputy communications director, Pekec, 25, will oversee the city hall’s press room, and Gerson, 29, will stay on as speech writer – all under Bahr’s direction, sources said.
Mamdani’s communications team is expected to be larger than that of any other mayor’s administration in Big Apple history, sources told The Post.
Bahr, a Barnard College alum, served as a communications director and press secretary for Sanders during his two-year presidential campaign – and stayed on with the team after the self-proclaimed democratic socialist lost the 2020 primary to former President Joe Biden.
Bahr briefly left Sanders’ camp to launch Left Flank Strategies, a progressive-oriented media consultancy that has since been scrubbed from the Internet. She left the firm in January 2024 and rejoined Sanders’ team, this time as his director of communications, according to her LinkedIn.
Before making her foray into political representation, Bahr hopped between media publications – including a one-year stint at the New York Times in 2014 and an internship on The Rachel Maddow Show.
She quietly exited the journalism industry in 2015 and joined former Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti’s communications team – launching her career in the background of national politics.
Bahr publicly supported Mamdani during his entire campaign and helped promote Sanders’ frequent involvement – including last week’s inauguration, where the Vermont senator swore in the new mayor.
She is also a staunch critic of Elon Musk, UnitedHealthcare, and the Trump administration – all in line with her former boss’s stances, according to various posts on her X account.
The New York Times first reported the staffing moves.
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