The New York City Council has a new speaker: Julie Menin. In ascending to the speakership, Menin replaces the term-limited Adrienne Adams. She secured a majority of the votes in order to win her position last November, declaring an incredibly early victory in the race. The progressive favorite, Councilmember Crystal Hudson, and other candidates soon dropped out of the running.
Most of the council members that supported Menin were largely moderate Democrats, Republicans, and pro-Mamdani members. She was elected during the council’s charter meeting by a group of her peers officially on January 7, 2026, and became the first Jewish Speaker to lead the city’s legislative body.
“Words truly cannot describe the tremendous gratitude I feel for my incredible colleagues. I am humbled by the faith, trust, and confidence you have placed in me. And I pledge to be a speaker for every single member of this council,” said Menin in her first speech. “I want to extend a special thank you to the members who ran spirited campaigns for speaker — Crystal Hudson, Chris Marte, Selvena Brooks-Powers, and Amanda Farias. You all ran races of integrity, and I look forward to working with you in the coming years.”
Here are five things to know about the city council leader:
- Menin, 58, was elected to the city council in 2022. She represents District 5, which includes the Upper East Side and Roosevelt Island. She spearheaded legislation to advance universal child care, create an Office of Healthcare Accountability, create a streamlined web portal for city licenses for small businesses, and helped codify the right to reproductive health care services.
- Prior to her election, Menin served as the city’s 2020 Census Director. She advocated against the Trump Administration’s efforts to add a citizenship question to the census and pushed the city to finish first among all major cities. Because of this effort, the city secured about $1.5 trillion in federal funding over the next decade.
- Menin has headed both the NYC Department of Consumer Affairs (DCA) and the Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment (MOME) as Commissioner in the past. While at the DCA, she bolstered small businesses, implemented the city’s historic Paid Sick Leave Law, and launched a new Earned Income Tax Credit initiative. At MOME, Menin worked to bring in significant TV jobs in film production in the city to a record, and launched new programs to increase women’s representation in the entertainment industry. She also negotiated a historic deal to bring the Grammy Awards back to New York in 2017, resulting in $200 million in revenue for the city.
- Before her life in public service, Menin practiced law as a regulatory attorney at Wiley, Rein & Fielding in Washington, D.C., and as the Senior Regulatory Counsel at Colgate-Palmolive, litigating disputes in state and federal courts. She graduated magna cum laude from Columbia University and received her law degree from Northwestern University School of Law. She returned as an adjunct professor to her alma mater, teaching about city and state government. She also helped launch She Should Run, a nationwide initiative that has encouraged thousands of women to run for elected office.
- Menin’s mother and grandmother survived the Holocaust during World War II. They hid in a cellar in Hungary. After the war ended, the two stayed in Hungary only to have to flee to Czechoslovakia when the Soviets took over. From there, they spent six years living in Sydney, Australia. Determined to live out the American dream, Menin’s family immigrated to New York City. They settled into a rent-controlled apartment on the East Side of Manhattan. A community known as “Little Hungary.” In a full circle moment, Menin represents the neighborhood that her mother and grandmother settled in. To honor their struggle, Menin led an education initiative with the Museum of Jewish Heritage to combat anti-semitism. The program brought about 85,000 public and charter school students to the museum for Holocaust education experiences.