Kathy Hochul | |
|---|---|
 Hochul in 2024 | |
| 57th Governor of New York | |
| Assumed office August 24, 2021 | |
| Lieutenant |
|
| Preceded by | Andrew Cuomo |
| Lieutenant Governor of New York | |
| In office January 1, 2015 – August 23, 2021 | |
| Governor | Andrew Cuomo |
| Preceded by | Robert Duffy |
| Succeeded by | Andrea Stewart-Cousins (acting) |
| Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from New York's 26th district | |
| In office June 1, 2011 – January 3, 2013 | |
| Preceded by | Chris Lee |
| Succeeded by | Chris Collins (redistricting) |
| 8th Clerk of Erie County | |
| In office April 10, 2007 – June 1, 2011 | |
| Preceded by | David Swarts |
| Succeeded by | Chris Jacobs |
| Member of the Hamburg Town Board | |
| In office January 3, 1994 – April 10, 2007 | |
| Preceded by | Patrick Hoak |
| Succeeded by | Richard Smith |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Kathleen Courtney August 27, 1958 Buffalo, New York, U.S. |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 2 |
| Residence | New York Executive Mansion |
| Education | |
| Signature |  |
| Website | |
Kathleen Hochul (/ˈhoʊkəl/ HOH-kəl;[1] née Courtney; born August 27, 1958) is an American politician and lawyer who has served since August 2021 as the 57th governor of New York. A member of the Democratic Party, she is New York's first female governor and the first governor from Upstate New York since Nathan L. Miller in 1922.
Born in Buffalo, New York, Hochul graduated from Syracuse University in 1980 and received a Juris Doctor from the Catholic University of America Columbus School of Law in Washington, D.C. in 1984. After serving on the Hamburg town board and as deputy Erie County clerk, Hochul was appointed Erie County clerk in 2007. She was elected to a full term as Erie County clerk in 2007 and reelected in 2010. In May 2011, Hochul won a four-candidate special election for New York's 26th congressional district to fill the vacancy created by the resignation of then-Representative Chris Lee, becoming the first Democrat to represent the district in 40 years. She served as a U.S. representative from 2011 to 2013. Hochul was defeated for reelection in 2012 by Chris Collins after the district's boundaries and demographics were changed in the decennial reapportionment process. Hochul later worked as a government relations executive for the Buffalo-based M&T Bank.
In the 2014 New York gubernatorial election, Andrew Cuomo selected Hochul as his running mate; after they won the election, Hochul was inaugurated as lieutenant governor. Cuomo and Hochul were reelected in 2018. Hochul took office as governor of New York on August 24, 2021, after Cuomo resigned amid allegations of sexual harassment. She won a full term in the 2022 election against Republican U.S. Representative Lee Zeldin in the narrowest New York gubernatorial election since 1994.
In June 2024, just weeks before it was to go into effect, she abruptly halted a congestion pricing plan in Manhattan that had been in the works since 2019, already cost hundreds of millions of dollars, and was expected to become the MTA's largest funding source.
- ^ At Stake Kathy Hochul for Governor. Kathy Hochul. May 17, 2022. Event occurs at 00:12. Retrieved August 20, 2024 – via YouTube.