Lieutenant Governor Kathy Hochul is next in line for the job of Governor should current Governor Andrew Cuomo leave office through impeachment or resignation. This scenario has become very likely amid Attorney State General Letitia James’ 186-page report being released yesterday. The report provided details of a toxic work environment in Cuomo’s office that included sexual assault allegations.
Politicians ranging from President Joe Biden to Mayor Bill de Blasio have called for Cuomo to be removed from office. That would make Lieutenant Governor Hochul step in as the next Governor of New York. Here are 10 fast facts about Hochul.
- Hochul was born in Buffalo, New York, the second of six children in a working-class Irish-American family, and continues to reside there with her husband and two children. She is a graduate of Syracuse University and received her law degree from Catholic University Columbus School of Law in Washington DC.
- She would be New York’s first female governor.
- She worked as a legal counsel and legislative assistant before ever running for office and served as the County Clerk of Erie County from 2007 to 2011.
- Served as the U.S. Representative for New York’s 26th congressional district from 2011-2013.
- Hochul was named Lieutenant Governor after Robert Duffy, the previous Lieutenant Governor, decided he would not run for reelection in 2014.
- Hochul chaired the Task Force on Heroin and Opioid Abuse and Addiction.
- Hochul led Cuomo’s Enough is Enough campaign to combat sexual assault on college campuses.
- Hochul has chaired New York’s 10 Regional Economic Development Councils.
- She is the liaison to New York’s federal representatives in Washington D.C.
- She lost her bid for reelection to Congress in 2012 after she was the first Democrat to win that seat in 40 years.
