George Pataki

George Elmer Pataki is an American lawyer and Republican politician who served as the 53rd Governor of New York (1995–2006). An attorney by profession, Pataki was elected mayor of his hometown of Peekskill, New York and went on to be elected to the State Assembly and the State Senate. In 1994, Pataki ran for Governor of New York against three-term incumbent Mario Cuomo, defeating him by a margin of more than three points as part of the Republican Revolution of 1994. Pataki would himself be elected to three consecutive terms, and was the third Republican Governor of New York elected since 1923. As of 2021, Pataki is the most recent Republican to hold any statewide office in New York.