ALBANY, N.Y. (WROC) — Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced he is resigning Tuesday, effective Aug. 24.
“Kathy Hochul is my lieutenant governor — she is smart and competent and this transition must be seamless,” Cuomo said. “We have a lot going on, and I’m very worried about the delta variant and so should you, but she can be brought up to speed.”
The governor has been under fire with dueling controversies regarding the state’s handling of nursing homes during the pandemic, and sexual harassment allegations.
Cuomo was faced with mounting calls to resign — including from President Joe Biden — and impeachment in the wake of the bombshell report from the New York attorney general’s office last week that concluded the governor sexually harassed 11 women, including former and current state employees.
Cuomo, 63, was first elected as the 56th governor of New York in 2010 and is currently in his third term.
Last year, the governor received an International Emmy award for his once-daily televised briefings on the coronavirus pandemic that has killed tens of thousands of New Yorkers.
Cuomo is not the first governor of New York to resign. There have been eight governors who resigned; six who resigned to take another office and two who resigned following allegations of misconduct.
- 2008: Eliot Spitzer (D), who was elected in 2006, resigned amid allegations of misconduct. David Paterson (D) succeeded him.
- 1973: Nelson Rockefeller (R), who was first elected in 1958, resigned after he was nominated as Vice President of the United States by President Gerald Ford (R). Malcolm Wilson (R) succeeded him.
- 1942: Herbert H. Lehman (D), who was first elected in 1932, resigned after he was appointed as director of Foreign Relief and Rehabilitation Operations. Charles Poletti (D) served the remaining month of Lehman’s term.
- 1913: William Sulzer (D), who was elected the previous year, resigned after impeachment proceedings were opened against him stemming from allegations that he had committed campaign finance fraud. Martin H. Glynn (D) succeeded him.
- 1910: Charles Evans Hughes (R), who was first elected in 1906, resigned after he was appointed to the Supreme Court of the United States by President William Howard Taft (R). Horace White (R) served the remaining three months of Hughes’ gubernatorial term. Hughes served on the Court until 1916 and was appointed to the Court a second time as Chief Justice, serving from 1930 to 1941.
- 1885: Grover Cleveland (D), who was first elected in 1882, resigned after winning election as President of the United States the previous year. David Bennett Hill (D) succeeded Cleveland and won election to two full terms in 1885 and 1888. Cleveland was defeated in his 1888 presidential re-election bid but won re-election in 1892, becoming the only president in U.S. history to serve two non-consecutive terms.
- 1829: Martin Van Buren (D), who had been elected the previous year, resigned after two months in office after he was appointed U.S. Secretary of State by President Andrew Jackson (D). Enos T. Throop (D) succeeded Van Buren and won election to a full term in 1830.
- 1817: Daniel D. Tompkins (Democratic-Republican), who was first elected in 1807, resigned after winning election as Vice President of the United States on a ticket with James Monroe (Democratic-Republican) the previous year. John Tayler (Democratic-Republican) served the remaining four months of Tompkins’ term.
Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul is set to become the first woman governor in New York history. She will hold the office through the remainder of Cuomo’s term, which runs through 2022.
Hochul is currently the highest-ranking female elected official in New York State.
As lieutenant governor, Hochul chairs 10 Regional Economic Development Councils responsible for collectively investing $6.1 billion into more than 7,300 projects statewide.
