George Pataki

George Elmer Pataki (/pəˈtɑːki/; born June 24, 1945) is an American lawyer and politician who served as the 53rd governor of New York from 1995 to 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. After defeating three-term incumbent Governor Mario Cuomo by a margin of three points in 1994, Pataki would go on to be elected to three consecutive terms himself. He was the third Republican since 1923 to win New York's governorship, after Thomas E. Dewey and Nelson Rockefeller. State Senate Majority Leaders Joseph Bruno and Dean Skelos each briefly served as acting Lieutenant Governor in 2008. Pataki ran for the Republican Party presidential nomination in 2016 but withdrew from the race before the primaries began.