Biography
Joseph Hernandez is the Republican and Conservative Party nominee for Comptroller, running against incumbent Thomas DiNapoli. Born in Cuba and a self-described former refugee, he is a 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.[1][2][3]
Hernandez was born in Camagüey, Cuba, according to his Ballotpedia survey; his campaign website says he fled communist rule at age seven and arrived in the United States, and describes his father as a political prisoner.[3][1][4] According to the website, he attended Florida public schools and earned a B.S. in neuroscience, an M.S. in molecular genetics and microbiology, and an MBA in finance and entrepreneurship, all from the University of Florida.[3] He also earned an M.S. in chronic disease epidemiology and biostatistics from Yale University. His campaign website lists a master's in global healthcare leadership from the University of Oxford, which a November 2025 news report described as still in progress.[3][1]
According to his campaign website, Hernandez's career began at Merck & Co. and continued at Affymetrix and then Digene Corp., a maker of an FDA-approved HPV test that was acquired by Qiagen.[3] He says he has founded, invested in and led more than a dozen biotechnology, healthcare and technology companies, and he is Founder and Senior Managing Partner of the biotech investment firm Blue Water Venture Partners.[3][4][1] According to his campaign website, he is the father of three children.[3]
Hernandez 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 (1,379 votes).[4] He announced his run for State Comptroller in November 2025 and was nominated unanimously by the Republican State Committee at its convention in Garden City in early 2026; he also appears on the Conservative Party line.[1][5][6]
- 1.Biotech entrepreneur Joseph Hernandez running for N.Y. state comptroller in 2026 · Spectrum News · 2025-11-20 News report
- 2.Joseph Hernandez for Comptroller – Standing Up for New York · Joseph Hernandez for Comptroller Candidate's own words
- 3.Meet Joseph · Hernandez for New York Candidate's own words
- 4.Joseph Hernandez (New York) · Ballotpedia · 2026-09-25 Reference
- 5.Republicans endorse Hernandez for state comptroller · Post-Journal · 2026-02-01 News report
- 6.New York Comptroller election, 2026 · Ballotpedia · 2026-09-25 Reference
Researched from the cited sources on 2026-10-21.
On the ballot
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