Andrea Stewart-Cousins

Andrea Alice Stewart-Cousins (née Stewart; born September 2, 1950) is an American politician and educator from Yonkers, New York. A member of the Democratic Party, Stewart-Cousins has represented District 35 in the New York State Senate since 2007 and has served as Majority Leader and Temporary President of that body since 2019. She has previously served twice as acting lieutenant governor of New York under Governor Kathy Hochul, for 16 days in 2021 and between April and May 2022. Stewart-Cousins is the first Black woman to serve as the New York lieutenant governor, although in an acting capacity. She is the first woman in the history of New York State to lead a conference in the New York State Legislature and is also the first female Senate Majority Leader in New York history.

Stewart-Cousins was first elected to the New York State Senate in 2006. She previously served as a Westchester County Legislator from 1996 to 2006. In 2012, she was chosen by her colleagues to lead the Senate Democratic Conference. After the Democratic Party won an outright Senate majority in the 2018 elections, Stewart-Cousins became Majority Leader in January 2019. She became acting lieutenant governor on August 24, 2021, when Governor Andrew Cuomo resigned and Lieutenant Governor Kathy Hochul ascended to the governorship. Hochul announced she would be appointing a lieutenant governor, following the precedent set in 2009 by Governor David Paterson's appointment of Lieutenant Governor Richard Ravitch. Hochul selected Brian Benjamin, who took office on September 9, 2021. However, Benjamin resigned less than a year later on April 12, 2022, after being arrested in a corruption scandal. This caused Stewart-Cousins to once again assume the role of acting Lieutenant Governor.