George Elmer Pataki (/pəˈtɑːki/needed; born June 24, 1945) is an American lawyer and politician who served as the 53rd Governor of New York (1995-2006). A member of the Republican Party, Pataki was a lawyer who was elected Mayor of his home town of Peekskill, later going on to be elected to State Assembly, then State Senate. In 1994, he ran for Governor against three-term incumbent Mario Cuomo, defeating him by over a three-point margin as part of the Republican Revolution of 1994. Pataki, succeeding a three-term Governor, would himself be elected to three consecutive terms, and was one of only three Republican governors of New York elected since 1923, the others being Thomas Dewey and Nelson Rockefeller. In early 2015, Pataki began exploring a candidacy for the Republican nomination for President of the United States in 2016, and announced his candidacy on May 28, 2015.