Andrew Mark Cuomo was born on December 6, 1957. He is a lawyer, author, and politician who has served as the 56th Governor of New York since 2011. He was elected to the same office his father, Mario Cuomo, occupied for three terms as a member of the Democratic Party.
He is a graduate of Fordham University and Albany Law School and was born in Queens, New York City. Before entering into private practice, he worked as his father’s campaign manager, then as an assistant district attorney in New York City.
From 1990 to 1993, he chaired the New York City Homeless Commission and founded a housing non-profit.
Andrew was the Urban Development for Community Planning and Development and Assistant Secretary of housing from 1993 to 1997. He was the 11th United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development in President Bill Clinton’s Cabinet from 1997 until 2001. In 2006 he was elected Attorney General of New York.
Andrew was elected Governor of New York in 2010 and has been reelected twice after defeating progressive candidates Zephyr Teachout (2014) and Cynthia Nixon (2018) in primaries elections.
Andrew oversaw the adoption of the Marriage Equality Act in 2011, which legalized same-sex marriage, the Compassionate Care Act in 2014, which legalized medical marijuana, and the Marijuana Regulation and Taxation Act in 2021, which legalized recreational marijuana.
He signed the NY SAFE Act of 2013, the harshest gun restriction bill in the United States, in reaction to the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting and the 2012 Webster incident.
He was a co-founder of the United States Climate Alliance, a collection of states dedicated to combating climate change by adhering to the Paris Climate Accords’ conditions.
Andrew’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic in New York drew national notice. Although he was initially praised for his response efforts and was awarded the International Emmy Founders Award for his daily briefings, he is now facing new criticism and a federal investigation after it was discovered that his administration hid information about COVID-19 deaths among nursing home residents.
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Childhood development and education
Cuomo was born in the Queens neighborhood of New York City to lawyers Mario Cuomo and Matilda (née Raffa), who subsequently became governor of New York.
His paternal grandparents were from Nocera Inferiore and Tramonti in southern Italy’s Campania area, while his maternal grandparents were from Sicily (his grandfather from Messina).
His younger brother, Chris Cuomo, is a CNN journalist, and he has four siblings. His older sister, Margaret Cuomo, is a well-known radiologist. He graduated from Archbishop Molloy High School in 1975 after graduating from St. Gerard Majella’s School in 1971. In 1979, he graduated from Fordham University with a B.A. and a J.D. from Albany Law School in 1982.
Early Career
Andrew served as campaign manager for his father Mario Cuomo’s victorious governorship campaign 1982. He subsequently went to work for the governor’s office as one of his father’s policy advisors and a roommate in Albany, earning $1 a year.
He was known as the “enforcer” in his father’s administration, while his father was known as the “nice guy,” in a good cop/bad cop relationship to achieve his father’s legislative agenda.
He served as an assistant district attorney in New York from 1984 to 1985, as well as in the law firm Blutrich, Falcone & Miller for a short time. In 1986, he launched Housing Enterprise for the Less Privy (HELP), and in 1988, he left his law firm to focus solely on HELP.
He served as chair of the New York City Homeless Commission from 1990 to 1993, during the administration of New York City mayor David Dinkins, and was responsible for formulating policies to address homelessness in the city and offering more housing alternatives.
Personal Life
On June 9, 1990, Andrew married Kerry Kennedy, the eighth child of Robert F. Kennedy and Ethel Skakel Kennedy. Cara Ethel Kennedy-Cuomo and Mariah Matilda Kennedy-Cuomo (born 1995) are twins, and Michaela Andrea Kennedy-Cuomo is their third child (born 1997). They divorced in 2005 after breaking up in 2003.
In 2005, He began dating Food Network host Sandra Lee, and the two married in 2011. They shared a home in Westchester County, New York. The pair declared the end of their relationship on September 25, 2019. Cuomo has been living in the New York State Executive Mansion in Albany full-time since the fall of 2019.
Andrew officiated at the wedding of his lifelong friend Billy Joel to his fourth wife, Alexis Roderick, on July 4, 2015. Cuomo is a devout Catholic who has been a member of the Catholic Church since he was a child.
According to The New York Times, Cuomo’s pro-abortion and pro-same-sex marriage positions have “become a lightning rod in a decades-old culture war between conservative Catholics and those, like Mr. Cuomo, who opposes the church’s stances on a number of issues, including abortion and divorce.
Cuomo earned the moniker “Love Gov” during the COVID-19 pandemic after responding to a question from his brother, CNN anchor Chris Cuomo, about using a softer tone while overseeing coronavirus response operations.
“I’ve always been a soft guy,” the governor said. I am the Minister of Love. You know I’m a chill dude in a good mood.
Cuomo drives a 1968 Pontiac GTO with the number “1” on the New York license plate.
Same-sex marriage
Following an “intense public and private lobbying campaign,” Cuomo signed the Marriage Equality Act, introducing same-sex marriage, on June 24, 2011, in keeping with a campaign promise, and later called for all states to do the same. Cuomo was praised for his attempts to enact laws allowing same-sex marriage.
Mr. Cuomo was “the sole national politician with hero status” for LGBT Americans, according to one major supporter. Cuomo was chastised after the Act was passed for referring to opponents’ opinions as “anti-American.”
A complaint was filed in the New York Supreme Court on July 25, 2011, seeking an injunction against the Act, alleging corruption and violations of the law during the bill’s passage. The plaintiffs’ lawsuit was first allowed to proceed, but the ruling was overturned on appeal.
Cuomo has ordered a boycott of Indiana and North Carolina in response to their anti-LGBT legislation.
Andrew Cuomo is an American lawyer, author, and politician who has been the governor of New York State since 2011. Cuomo has been accused of sexual harassment and sexual assault since late 2020.
Eleven women had lodged allegations against him by April 2021. Cuomo sexually assaulted many women during his time in office, according to a long-awaited investigation released on August 3, 2021, by New York State Attorney General Letitia James.
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