Andrew Cuomo finally resigns; Kathy Hochul to become first female Governor of New York

Reluc­tant­ly acknowl­edg­ing that his posi­tion has become com­plete­ly unten­able, Andrew Cuo­mo resigned today as New York’s top elect­ed leader, about one year and a half pri­or to the end of his third term, fol­low­ing the release of a blis­ter­ing report that con­clud­ed that Cuo­mo had sex­u­al­ly harassed near­ly a dozen women and ille­gal­ly retal­i­at­ed against at least one who com­plained pub­licly about it.

“Giv­en the cir­cum­stances, the best way I can help now is if I step aside and let gov­ern­ment get back to gov­ern­ing,” Cuo­mo said in a livestreamed mes­sage from his office that many found dif­fi­cult to watch. “And there­fore, that’s what I’ll do.”

Cuo­mo had been asked to do just that months and weeks ago, but he refused, not want­i­ng to relin­quish his pow­er. He recon­sid­ered only after his clos­est advis­ers and friends told him blunt­ly that he would be impeached if he did not resign. (In New York, an impeached gov­er­nor los­es their pow­er as of when arti­cles of impeach­ment are approved, unlike at the fed­er­al level.)

New York’s con­gres­sion­al del­e­ga­tion, leg­isla­tive lead­er­ship, and key allies had all pushed Cuo­mo to step down after the release of the New York Attor­ney Gen­er­al’s report into his con­duct, with many who had said they were reserv­ing judg­ment declar­ing that the time had come for Cuo­mo to go. But Cuo­mo respond­ed instead with defi­ance, prompt­ing the State Assem­bly to begin work on impeach­ment pro­ceed­ings. The Assem­bly could still press on with those pro­ceed­ings, result­ing in Cuo­mo being barred from ever hold­ing office again.

Cuo­mo will be suc­ceed­ed by Kathy Hochul, the cur­rent Lieu­tenant Gov­er­nor, who for­mer­ly rep­re­sent­ed a por­tion of the state in Congress.

Hochul will be the first woman to lead the State of New York since its inception.

While Hochul and Cuo­mo are not par­tic­u­lar­ly close, she has been a sup­port­ive and loy­al sur­ro­gate for the gov­er­nor since join­ing the tick­et back in 2014.

“I agree with Gov­er­nor Cuo­mo’s deci­sion to step down,” Hochul said in a brief state­ment. “It is the right thing to do and in the best inter­est of New York­ers. As some­one who has served at all lev­els of gov­ern­ment and is next in the line of suc­ces­sion, I am pre­pared to lead as New York State’s 57th Governor.”

Hochul will soon have to decide if she wants to be a can­di­date for gov­er­nor in next year’s midterms. New York elects its chief exec­u­tive in between pres­i­den­tial cycles, and Cuo­mo had been gear­ing up to seek a fourth term before final­ly being enveloped by scan­dal. Hochul is cur­rent­ly not well known to many vot­ers, but as the incum­bent gov­er­nor, she will have much greater name famil­iar­i­ty by the time New York holds its 2022 Demo­c­ra­t­ic pri­ma­ry for governor.

Cuo­mo’s res­ig­na­tion will be effec­tive in two weeks, mean­ing that Hochul will take over just before the month of Sep­tem­ber begins.