Democratic Rep. Antonio Delgado will be appointed as New York’s next lieutenant governor, Gov. Kathy Hochul said Tuesday.

“New Yorkers deserve a Lieutenant Governor who’s working day and night to make lives better for working people and their families,” Delgado said in a press release. “Upstate, downstate, doesn’t matter. We all want the same things, security, family, and opportunity. The key is to listen to New Yorkers from all walks of life and then be their voice to get the job done.”  

The two-term Democrat likely faced a more difficult reelection after New York’s highest state court threw out the state’s congressional maps last week. That decision denied Democrats one of their most likely spots to pick up seats in this year’s elections after the state lost a seat in reapportionment. 

Hochul called Delgado “an outstanding leader and public servant.”

“We share a belief in working together to get things done for New Yorkers, and Representative Delgado has an incredible record of doing just that in Congress,” she said in a statement. “With Antonio Delgado by my side serving as Lieutenant Governor, we will both make history — and make a difference.”  

Delgado’s appointment comes after former Lt. Gov. Brian Benjamin resigned last month after he was indicted on federal bribery charges. 

First elected to Congress in 2018, Delgado, 45, flipped a Republican-held seat during a wave election for Democrats. He ran on expanding health insurance access by allowing people to buy into the Medicare program and on overhauling the criminal justice system.

A Rhodes scholar, Delgado attended Harvard Law School and started a hip-hop record label before joining a law firm in Los Angeles and then joining the law firm Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld in New York.