George Pataki, American lawyer and politician, 53rd Governor of New York
George Elmer Pataki (; 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 more than three points as part of the Republican Revolution of 1994, Pataki would himself be elected to three consecutive terms. He was only the third Republican elected Governor of New York since 1923, the other two being Thomas E. Dewey and Nelson Rockefeller. As of 2021, Pataki and his second Lieutenant Governor, Mary Donohue, are the last Republicans to be elected to statewide office in New York though state senate majority leaders Joseph Bruno and Dean Skelos each briefly served as acting Lieutenant Governor after the resignation of Eliot Spitzer elevated David Paterson to the governorship.
Pataki ran for the Republican nomination for President of the United States in 2016 but withdrew from the race before the primaries began.