Andrew Cuomo

A member of the Democratic Party, Cuomo was elected to three terms to the same position that his father, Mario Cuomo, held for three terms as the 52nd governor.

Born in Queens, New York City, Cuomo is a graduate of Fordham University and Albany Law School.

Andrew Mark Cuomo (, ; born December 6, 1957) is an American politician, lawyer, and former government official who served as the 56th governor of New York from 2011 to 2021.

Andrew Mark Cuomo was born on December 6, 1957, in the New York City borough of Queens to lawyer and later governor of New York Mario Cuomo and Matilda (née Raffa).

His parents were both of Italian descent; his paternal grandparents were from Nocera Inferiore and Tramonti in the Campania region of southern Italy, while his maternal grandparents were from Sicily (his grandfather from Messina).

He has four siblings; his younger brother, Chris Cuomo, is a current NewsNation anchor and a former CNN journalist, and his elder sister is noted radiologist Margaret Cuomo.

Cuomo graduated from Archbishop Molloy High School in 1975.

He earned a Bachelor of Arts from Fordham University in 1979 and a Juris Doctor from Albany Law School in 1982.

He began his career working as the campaign manager for his father in the 1982 New York gubernatorial election.

During his father's successful 1982 campaign for governor, Cuomo served as campaign manager.

He then joined the governor's staff as a policy advisor and sometime Albany roommate, earning $1 a year.

As a member of his father's administration, Cuomo was known as the "enforcer" where his father was known as the "nice guy" in a good cop/bad cop dynamic to further advance his father's legislative agenda.

From 1984 to 1985, Cuomo was a New York assistant district attorney and briefly worked at the law firm of Blutrich, Falcone & Miller.

He founded Housing Enterprise for the Less Privileged (HELP) in 1986 and left his law firm to run HELP full time in 1988.

Later, Cuomo entered the private practice of law and chaired the New York City Homeless Commission from 1990 to 1993.

From 1990 to 1993, during the administration of New York City mayor David Dinkins, Cuomo was chair of the New York City Homeless Commission, which was responsible for developing policies to address homelessness in the city and providing more housing options.

Cuomo then served in the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development as assistant secretary from 1993 to 1997 and as secretary from 1997 to 2001 under President Bill Clinton.

Cuomo was appointed Assistant Secretary for Community Planning and Development in the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) in 1993, a member of President Bill Clinton's administration.

After the departure of Secretary Henry Cisneros at the end of Clinton's first term under the cloud of an FBI investigation, Cuomo was unanimously confirmed by the United States Senate to succeed him as Secretary of HUD.

Cuomo served as Secretary from January 1997 until the Clinton administration ended in 2001.

In 2000, Cuomo led HUD efforts to negotiate an agreement with United States handgun manufacturer Smith & Wesson.

This agreement required Smith & Wesson to change the design, distribution, and marketing of guns to make them safer and to help keep them out of the hands of children and criminals.

Budgets enacted during Cuomo's term contained initiatives to increase the supply of affordable housing and home ownership and to create jobs and economic development.

These included new rental assistance subsidies, reforms to integrate public housing, higher limits on mortgages insured by the Federal Housing Administration, a crackdown on housing discrimination, expanded programs to help homeless people get housing and jobs, and creation of new empowerment zones.

After failing to win the Democratic primary in the 2002 New York gubernatorial election, Cuomo was elected New York attorney general in 2006.

Cuomo won the 2010 Democratic primary for governor of New York and won the general election with over 60 percent of the vote.

During his governorship, Cuomo signed the Marriage Equality Act in 2011 to legalize same-sex marriage, the Compassionate Care Act in 2014 to legalize the medical use of cannabis, and the Marijuana Regulation and Taxation Act in 2021 to legalize the recreational use of cannabis.

Cuomo's administration oversaw the construction of the Governor Mario M. Cuomo Bridge, the Second Avenue Subway, the Moynihan Train Hall, and a reconstruction of LaGuardia Airport.

He also delivered Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act; a 2011 tax code that raised taxes for the wealthy and lowered taxes for the middle class; 12-week paid family leave; and a gradual increase of the state's minimum wage to $15 per hour.

Cuomo received national attention for his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic in New York.

Although he was initially lauded for his response, he faced renewed criticism and federal investigation after it was discovered that his administration covered up information pertaining to COVID-19 deaths among nursing home residents.

In response to the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting and the 2012 Webster shooting, Cuomo signed the NY SAFE Act of 2013, the strictest gun control law in the United States.

He was re-elected in 2014 and 2018.

Beginning in late 2020, Cuomo faced numerous allegations of sexual misconduct.

An investigation commissioned by New York attorney general Letitia James reported in August 2021 that Cuomo sexually harassed at least eleven women during his time in office, for which Cuomo faces criminal investigations.

Following the release of the attorney general's report, Cuomo was called to resign by President Joe Biden.

On August 23, Cuomo resigned from office and was succeeded by his lieutenant governor, Kathy Hochul.

At the time of his resignation, he was the longest-serving governor in the United States.

On December 28, 2021 the Westchester County district attorney declined to issue criminal charges from the credible allegations, citing "statutory requirements" of New York.

On January 7, 2022, a judge dismissed a criminal complaint which had been filed against Cuomo.