Joseph Hernandez
Nominated by the Republican State Committee at its convention; the Republican and Conservative primaries were canceled as he was unopposed.
Joseph Hernandez is the Republican and Conservative Party nominee for Comptroller, running against incumbent Thomas DiNapoli. A Cuban-born biotechnology entrepreneur and investment-firm executive who has not previously held elected office, he ran as an independent candidate for New York City mayor in 2025 before entering the comptroller race. His campaign centers on auditing state spending, creating a fraud task force, and increasing upstate economic investment.[15][16]
Positions on the issues
- OpposesRaise taxes on high earners or corporations
Says New York has a spending problem rather than a revenue shortfall and campaigns on auditing and reining in state spending rather than raising taxes.[18]
In their words — priorities
- Conducting real-time audits of every state agency and public authority to catch waste, fraud and mismanagement faster.[17]
- Creating a dedicated Fraud Strike Task Force to identify suspicious payment patterns and refer cases to law enforcement, with pre-payment fraud detection to stop improper payments before they go out.[18]
- Strengthening pension fund performance and cutting what he describes as excessive Wall Street investment fees.[18]
- Creating a $10 billion "Empire Opportunity Fund" to attract investment in manufacturing, technology, energy, life sciences and logistics, with emphasis on upstate and western New York.[18][19]
- Opposing a 2026 executive budget proposal to raise the state contract-review threshold from $50,000 to $300,000, which he has said he would sue to block.[8]
Background
- Came to the United States from Cuba as a child refugee; describes his father as a former political prisoner.[16]
- Earned a Bachelor of Science in neuroscience, a Master of Science in molecular genetics and microbiology, and an MBA in finance and entrepreneurship, all from the University of Florida.[16]
- Earned a Master of Science in chronic disease epidemiology and biostatistics from Yale University and a master's degree in global healthcare leadership from the University of Oxford.[16]
- Founded and runs Blue Water Venture Partners, a biotech investment firm, after a career founding several companies in biotechnology and healthcare.[3][15]
- Ran as an independent candidate for Mayor of New York City in the November 2025 general election on the Quality of Life Party line, receiving about 0.1% of the vote.[3]