Andrew Cuomo

Andrew Cuomo (born December 6, 1957, New York, New York, U.S.) is an American politician and attorney who served as the governor of New York (2011–21) after first having served as secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD; 1997–2001) under Pres. Bill Clinton and as New York’s attorney general (2007–10).

As a teenager in Queens, New York, Cuomo put up posters to help his father, Democrat Mario Cuomo, campaign for state office. Andrew graduated from Fordham University in 1979, the year in which his father became New York lieutenant governor. After graduating from Albany Law School (J.D., 1982), he ran the campaign that made his father governor (1983–95). For the next two years Andrew worked as his father’s senior adviser in Albany.

In 1984 Cuomo moved to New York City, where he became an assistant district attorney and a partner in the law firm of Blutrich, Falcone & Miller. During this time, he began to focus on the problems of the city’s homeless population, and in 1986 he founded Housing Enterprises for the Less Privileged (HELP), an organization that provided transitional housing for people living on the streets. He continued to advise his father from a distance and managed his successful 1986 gubernatorial reelection campaign.

Cuomo’s efforts for the homeless led to his appointment in 1991 to chair the New York City Commission on the Homeless. After Clinton’s election as president in November 1992, Cuomo went to Washington, D.C., to help with the transition to the new administration and stayed to work on housing at the federal level. In May 1993 the U.S. Senate confirmed his appointment to HUD as assistant secretary for Community Planning and Development. Working closely with Vice Pres. Al Gore, Cuomo introduced new government policies to move the homeless into permanent housing with the help of transitional housing and expanded social services. In December 1996 President Clinton nominated Cuomo to become secretary of HUD, a post that he held from 1997 to 2001.

After losing his first New York gubernatorial bid in 2002, Cuomo won election as the state’s attorney general in 2006. He ran again for governor in 2010 and this time was successful in winning the office, handily defeating his Republican opponent, businessman Carl Paladino, in the general election. Cuomo was reelected to a second term in 2014. As governor of New York, he signed legislation in 2011 that legalized same-sex marriage in the state. In late 2014 he announced a ban on fracking, or hydraulic fracturing, citing a state-funded health study that found “significant public health risks” associated with the practice. He also oversaw tax cuts and an increase to the minimum wage. Cuomo faced controversy in 2014 when he abruptly closed a commission he had created the previous year to root out government corruption. Amid allegations that his administration had interfered with the panel, federal authorities conducted an investigation, and in 2016 it was announced that there was insufficient evidence to bring criminal charges.

In March 2020 New York City became the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, and Cuomo gained a national profile with his press briefings, in which he often criticized Pres. Donald Trump’s response to the crisis. The governor’s popularity rose as many praised his handling of the coronavirus outbreak, and he released American Crisis: Leadership Lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic (2020). However, he was not without his critics, some of whom accused him of causing unnecessary deaths among nursing-home patients, a population especially hard-hit by COVID-19. Drawing particular criticism was a controversial state policy in which people infected with the virus were sent to nursing homes. Cuomo defended the plan, but in 2021 it was revealed that his administration had undercounted nursing-home deaths. The matter became the subject of an FBI investigation.

Another scandal emerged in late 2020 when a series of women began accusing Cuomo of sexual harassment. In addition, there were allegations that he created a toxic workplace. Cuomo denied the claims, and he defended his physical gestures as a way of “convey[ing] warmth, nothing more.” However, the state’s attorney general subsequently launched an investigation. The final report was released in August 2021, and Cuomo was found to have sexually harassed numerous women “through unwelcome and unwanted touching, as well as by making numerous offensive and sexually suggestive comments.” It also determined that his administration’s response to the accusations had contributed to “an overall hostile work environment.” Cuomo again denied any wrongdoing and accused the report of being biased. Calls for his resignation increased, including within his own party; notably, U.S. Pres. Joe Biden said that he should step down. Facing likely impeachment, Cuomo on August 10 announced his resignation, effective in two weeks. He left office on August 24 and was succeeded by Lieut. Gov. Kathy Hochul, who became New York’s first female governor.

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Cuomo’s autobiography, All Things Possible: Setbacks and Success in Politics and Life, was published in 2014.