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Kathy Hochul

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U.S. Governor

The Resume

    (August 27, 1958- )
    Born in Buffalo, New York
    Birth name was Kathleen Courtney
    Congressional Representative for New York's 26th District (2011-13)
    Lieutenant Governor of New York (2015-21)
    Became Governor of New York following the resignation of <25530>Andrew Cuomo (August 24, 2021)
    Democrat
    Last name pronounced 'HOH-kuhl'

Why she might be annoying:

    She first gained statewide attention as Erie County clerk when she opposed Governor Eliot Spitzer's plan to allow illegal immigrants to apply for drivers licenses, declaring she would applicants arrested if the proposal went into effect (2007). As Lieutenant Governor a decade later, she supported legislation to provide drivers licenses for undocumented immigrants (2018).
    She did not live in the 26th District when she ran to represent it in Congress. (She moved into the district after winning the election.)
    She made few media appearances during her first campaign for Lieutenant Governor, leading to accusations that Cuomo was keeping her 'under wraps' so her more conservative/centrist positions would not alienate liberal voters.
    During the 2018 election, Cuomo suggested she leave the ticket and run for a seat in Congress.
    Her husband is a general counsel and vice president of a casino and hospitality firm and her daughter-in-law is a lobbyist for a pharmaceutical firm, which raised concerns about potential conflicts of interest.

Why she might not be annoying:

    As vice president of the student government at Syracuse University, she led a successful campaign to get the school to divest from companies doing business with apartheid-era South Africa.
    As Lieutenant Governor, she regularly visited each of New York's 62 counties ever year.
    Her distance from Cuomo proved beneficial when his administration imploded in scandals.
    She was the first female governor of New York and the first governor from outside the NYC metro area in nine decades.
    General Assembly member Karen McMahon said, 'She's probably one of the most down-to-earth people you could ever meet.'

Credit: C. Fishel


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    For 2024, as of last weekly ranking, Out of 5 Votes: 20.0% Annoying
    In 2023, Out of 247 Votes: 65.59% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 81 Votes: 43.21% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 39 Votes: 61.54% Annoying