At an outdoor event in Harlem this afternoon, Gov. Kathy Hochul announced her selection of state Sen. Brian Benjamin of Manhattan as the state”™s new lieutenant governor.
Benjamin will step into the office Hochul vacated when she succeeded Andrew Cuomo as governor following his exit earlier this week.
Hochul said that Benjamin would take the oath of office next month rather than immediately. The delay is so that a special election to fill the balance of his term in the state Senate can coincide with November”™s scheduled election, rather than being held separately.
Benjamin has been representing the state Senate”™s 30th District, which covers Harlem, East Harlem, Manhattan”™s Upper West Side, Washington Heights, Hamilton Heights and Morningside Heights. He was born in Harlem, attended New York City public schools, and earned a degree in public policy from Brown University and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Benjamin spent three years at Morgan Stanley, then shifted his professional life back to Harlem where he was involved in creating about 1,000 units of affordable housing.
He is 44 years old and has been in the state Senate since 2017, when he won a special election. He was reelected in 2018 and 2020. This year, he was defeated in a primary for New York City comptroller. Running in that contest did not require him to give up his senate seat.
Reporting by the New York Daily News raised questions about possible violations of fundraising laws by Benjamin”™s campaigns, including whether campaign funds had been used to pay personal expenses.
Hochul has said that she plans to run for a full four-year term as governor; Benjamin as her running mate would bring a geographic political balance to the Democratic ticket. She is from Buffalo in the far western part of upstate New York. It also would bring racial and gender balance to the ticket.
Hochul introduced Benjamin as being a proponent of tenant protection, affordable housing and anti-addiction programs.
Benjamin described Hochul as a dedicated public servant.
“This is a woman who cares about the entire state and that is the kind of governor we can be proud of and we can work with, to make sure that we can get through this pandemic, we can get to a great recovery,” Benjamin said.
Benjamin praised his mother and stepfather, who were in the audience.
“Some people think you learn things when you go to Brown and Harvard. They don”™t know anything until you come to Harlem. That”™s when you learn what”™s really going on,” Benjamin said.
He went out of his way to laud state Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins of Yonkers, who was not at the event. It had been speculated that she could be chosen to move up to lieutenant governor.
Benjamin identified the major problems New York faces as gun violence, homelessness, affordable housing, the Delta variant of Covid-19, and making the state’s eviction relief program actually work for renters and landlords.
Benjamin said, “We need each other to pursue our dreams. So many kids that are walking down 125th Street right now need to know that this world is here for them and we need to help them take it.”
Also speaking at the announcement event was 89-year-old Hazel Dukes, president of the NAACP New York State Conference and a member of the NAACP National Board of Directors and Executive Committee. She praised Benjamin as a hard worker who will be loyal to the people of New York.
“You”™re going to have a man of integrity, a man of compassion, a man of love to work with this governor,” Dukes said.
