NEW YORK (WCBS 880) – State Sen. Brian Benjamin was sworn in as New York's lieutenant governor at a ceremony on Thursday morning.
Benjamin, 44, was sworn in by U.S. District Judge Analisa Torres of Manhattan around 9:30 a.m.
Gov. Kathy Hochul, who appointed Benjamin to the post in August, attended the ceremony held at her Manhattan office, along with members of Benjamin's family.
Hochul served as lieutenant governor under former Gov. Andrew Cuomo before he resigned last month amid a sexual harassment scandal.
As state senator, Benjamin represented parts of Manhattan, including Harlem, East Harlem, the Upper West Side and Washington Heights.
At Thursday's ceremony, Hochul said she needed someone she can trust and confide in as the state faces “extraordinary challenges,” including the impacts of the coronavirus pandemic and the aftermath of tropical rainstorm Ida.
“We have a lot on our plate,” the governor said. “We also want to make sure that we continue to restore trust in government; let people know that we believe integrity is everything, that we’re going to continue to lead in a way that people will hopefully look back on and say that it was a shining time in our state’s history. But I can’t do it alone. I need someone at my side, someone who I also rely upon for their wisdom, and their guidance, and their local knowledge of issues.”
Benjamin thanked the governor for “everything you have done so far to create a sense of normalcy in a time that is absolutely not normal.” He said his appointment sends a clear message.
“Whether it’s fighting for safer streets, advancing nation-leading gun reform, combatting the opioid epidemic, or advocating for affordable housing, Gov. Hochul wants to make sure that we all have a seat at the table,” the new lieutenant governor said after being sworn in. “And I think that you asking me to join the administration is making it abundantly clear that you want Upstate and Downstate, every ethnicity, every culture, to feel included. And for too long, people have not felt included, that they have a seat at the table, that their issues would be brought to the forefront. And I’m proud to say that you’re creating an administration that will do so.”
Hochul is the first woman to serve as the state’s governor and a Democrat from western New York. She had pledged to choose someone from New York City to be her lieutenant governor.
Benjamin, the Harlem-born son of Caribbean immigrants, is New York’s second Black lieutenant governor. David Paterson, also a former state senator from Harlem, was elected lieutenant governor in 2006 and took over as governor in 2007 when Gov. Eliot Spitzer resigned in prostitution scandal.
Hochul praised Benjamin as an example of the American dream, saying he “started out with little, rose to where he is today but now turns back and doesn’t think about himself, he thinks about how he can serve not just his senatorial district but now he'll be helping me serve 20 million New Yorkers.”
Benjamin said Hochul has asked him to focus on areas including boosting COVID-19 vaccination rates and upgrading conditions in New York City’s public housing system.
Benjamin said Hochul “wants to make sure that I am part of the team that goes around the state to make sure that people know that the vaccine is the answer and that if we’re going to get through this COVID epidemic we’re going to do it together and the vaccine is the key.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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