What you should know
- Gov. Kathy Hochul is expected to elect state Sen. Brian A. Benjamin as her lieutenant governor, three sources familiar with the matter told our sister network News 4.
- Benjamin, who also ran for state comptroller in this year’s election, has served as a New York State Senator for District 30, which is comprised of Harlem, East Harlem (El Barrio), Upper West Side, Washington Heights , Hamilton Heights and Morningside Heights.
- In an interview last week, Hochul, who hails from the Buffalo area, said she had narrowed her search to focus on New York City candidates.
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NEW YORK – Gov. Kathy Hochul is expected to elect state Senator Brian A. Benjamin as her lieutenant governor, three sources familiar with the matter told our sister network News 4.
Benjamin, who also ran for state comptroller in this year’s election, has served as a New York State Senator for District 30, which is comprised of Harlem, East Harlem (El Barrio), Upper West Side, Washington Heights , Hamilton Heights and Morningside Heights.
News 4 contacted Benjamin’s spokesperson for comment.
In his first term, he served as a high-ranking member of the Senate Civil Service and Pensions Committee. He currently serves as Chairman of the Budget and Revenue Committee and as the Major Assistant Principal Leader. In addition, he is a member of the Code, Finance, Health and Rules Committees, as well as the Racing, Gaming and Gambling Committee and the Senate Joint Task Force on Opioids, Addiction Prevention and Overdose.
Benjamin and his brothers, originally from Harlem with a Caribbean mother, had a middle-class upbringing.
After graduating from high school in New York City, Brian earned his BA in Public Policy from Brown University and his MBA from Harvard Business School. Subsequently, he spent three years working in investment banking at Morgan Stanley, before returning to Harlem to build affordable housing, creating more than a thousand affordable and environmentally sustainable housing units in one M / WBE.
Benjamin has served as Chairman of Community Board 10 and the Land Use Committee in an effort to keep Harlem’s rent affordable. He launched a mentoring program in 2013 at Wadleigh High School in Harlem and is honored to serve as a member of the elected Brown University Alumni Board of Directors.
Benjamin also served as a 2012 delegate to former President Barack Obama and as a member of Obama’s National Finance Committee.
In the New York State Senate, Benjamin has championed criminal justice reform and affordable housing. In 2018 he successfully promoted the divestment of state public pension funds from private prisons, and the following year he presented a bill to prohibit state-authorized banks from making such investments. Benjamin also proposed keeping rent-controlled apartments affordable, which was part of the Tenant Protection Act of 2019, the largest expansion of tenant rights in decades.
In an interview in “Face The Nation”From CBS last week, Hochul, who hails from the Buffalo area, said she had narrowed her search to focus on New York City candidates.
“Although I have spent thousands of hours in New York City and am familiar with the challenges, I want someone to live there,” she said. “I want someone who understands the challenges first hand.”
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