Kathy Hochul

Kathy Hochul
Hochul in 2024
57th Governor of New York
Incumbent
Assumed office August 24, 2021
Lieutenant	Andrea Stewart-Cousins (acting) Brian Benjamin Andrea Stewart-Cousins (acting) Antonio Delgado
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 (1958-08-27) August 27, 1958 (age 66) Buffalo, New York, U.S.
Political party	Democratic
Spouse	Bill Hochul ​ (m. 1984)​
Children	2
Residence	New York Executive Mansion
Education	Syracuse University (BA) Catholic University (JD)
Signature
Website	Government website Campaign website
Kathy Hochul's voice Kathy Hochul on her support for the American Jobs Act Recorded October 24, 2011

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; the plan was revived in November and is set to take effect on January 5, 2025.