Google search on, “new york state governors who became president.”
Four men have become President of the United States after serving as Governor of New York: Martin Van Buren, Grover Cleveland, Theodore Roosevelt, and Franklin D. Roosevelt, and six were Vice President of the United States. (Van Buren and Theodore Roosevelt held both offices.)
The last New York governor to obtain national office was Nelson Rockefeller, who was appointed, not elected. The last New York governor elected President was Thomas Dewey Franklin Roosevelt.
There was a reason. in the days of yore, New York was the most populous state and a middle of the road state. Alas no more. New York is an extreme blue state with nary a republican in state wide office. The governor who even pretended to be a republican was\ George Pataki. The last republican in state wide office was Al D’Amato
As Pataki and Mario Cuomo discovered, the last presidential train from New York left in the 1040’s . Yet the national party of the the left can dream. Politico has floated current New York governor, Andrew J. Cuomo, a/k/a Little Andy for President. I say to Little Andy run. For when and if Little Andy were to run for President, he was be run over by the bus called Mainstream America, or Fly Over Country. Little Andy out of touch with real Americans with American values, from Washington Times:
“It’s more about extreme Republicans versus moderate Republicans,” he said in a radio interview Friday, National Review Online reported. “You’re seeing that play out in New York. … The Republican Party candidates are running against the SAFE Act — it was voted for by moderate Republicans who run the Senate.
“Their problem is not me and the Democrats; their problem is themselves. Who are they? Are they these extreme conservatives who are right-to-life, pro-assault-weapon, anti-gay? Is that who they are? Because if that’s who they are and they’re the extreme conservatives, they have no place in the state of New York, because that’s not who New Yorkers are.”
Hat tip and reax, Fuzzy Slippers, Legal Insurrection:
The progressive left’s problems with Cuomo are rooted in his not being progressive enough. On the right, however, the feeling is that he is far too progressive to appeal to middle America.
Cuomo not only publicly announced that “conservatives are not welcome” in New York, but he also signed the anti-Second Amendment SAFE Act that even New Yorkers blatantly rejected and ignore.
If upstate New York is a harbinger for things to come, then the resulting pushback on Cuomo’s SAFE Act is resounding.
Little Andy has already written all the opposition ads needed to abort his presidential run.
