Andrew Cuomo

Andrew Mark Cuomo (born December 6, 1957) is an American lawyer and politician who served as the 56th governor of New York from 2011 to 2021. The son of three-term New York governor Mario Cuomo, he began his career in public service as a top aide to his father and later founded a nonprofit organization addressing homelessness before entering federal government as assistant secretary and then secretary of Housing and Urban Development under President Bill Clinton from 1993 to 2001. Cuomo then served as New York State attorney general from 2007 to 2011, prosecuting financial institutions in the subprime mortgage crisis. During his decade as governor, Cuomo balanced a $10 billion budget deficit without tax increases, championed major infrastructure initiatives including the redevelopment of LaGuardia and John F. Kennedy International Airports, the opening of Moynihan Train Hall, and the first phase of the Second Avenue Subway, and signed legislation legalizing same-sex marriage in 2011. His administration's response to the COVID-19 pandemic initially garnered national acclaim for daily briefings and strict lockdowns but drew scrutiny over a March 2020 directive requiring nursing homes to accept patients with confirmed or suspected COVID-19 infections regardless of status, which correlated with over 15,000 deaths in those facilities; the administration later faced accusations of underreporting these figures and, in 2024, a congressional referral for potential criminal prosecution over alleged false statements to investigators minimizing the policy's role. Cuomo resigned in August 2021 amid a state attorney general investigation substantiating claims of sexual harassment and a hostile work environment involving at least 11 women, though he denied wrongdoing and in 2025 expressed regret over the decision, citing political motivations in its fallout.

Andrew Mark Cuomo was born on December 6, 1957, in the Queens borough of New York City to Mario Cuomo and Matilda Raffa Cuomo. Both parents were of Italian descent, with Mario Cuomo born in 1932 in Queens to immigrant parents from Italy who had settled in the working-class neighborhoods of the borough. Matilda Cuomo, née Raffa, also hailed from an Italian-American family, contributing to the household's emphasis on immigrant values of hard work and opportunity. The family resided in Hollis, Queens , reflecting their modest, middle-class roots in a community of Italian-American and other working families.

He was the second of five children, following his sister Margaret (born 1955)—Andrew, Maria, Margaret, Madeline, and Christopher—all raised in Queens amid a politically engaged household. His father, Mario , initially worked manual labor jobs, including cleaning sewers and constructing concrete forms, before pursuing law and entering politics, which instilled in the children a focus on public service and resilience. The Cuomo home emphasized education and community involvement, with Mario 's eventual rise to New York governorship shaping family dynamics, though Andrew's early years predated his father's prominent political career. This upbringing in a tight-knit, ambitious Italian-American family in urban Queens provided Cuomo with foundational experiences in navigating socioeconomic challenges and ethnic identity.

Andrew Cuomo attended Archbishop Molloy High School , a private Catholic college-preparatory institution in Briarwood, Queens, graduating in 1975. He then enrolled at Fordham University in the Bronx, earning a Bachelor of Arts degree in English in 1979. Following undergraduate studies, Cuomo pursued legal training at Albany Law School , from which he received a Juris Doctor in 1982.

Cuomo's academic path coincided with his father's ascent in New York politics, providing early exposure to public service and governance.