Gov. Kathy Hochul's rise to the state's highest political office is another step up for a woman who has spent a career in politics.

Hochul, who was sworn-in as New York's 57th governor on Tuesday morning, is a Western New York native, Syracuse University alumna and a lawyer, who started her political career by working in Washington, D.C., as a legislative aid to Rep. John LaFalce and Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan.

Later, she took elected office on the Hamburg Town Board for 14 years.

She then became the Erie County clerk from 2007 to 2011. That led to a run for Congress in 2011 when she won a special election to fill the seat vacated by Rep. Chris Lee.

After she lost in a 2012 election for a redrawn 27th Congressional District seat, Gov. Andrew Cuomo selected her as his running mate for his second term bid in 2014. She twice won her election for lieutenant governor, a position she held up until early Tuesday morning.

Hochul is now the first female governor in New York's history and the first governor from upstate New York in 100 years. It's a moment those who know her say she's been preparing for most of her life. 

"I always say she's humble and kind but very tough," said Len Lenihan, former Erie County Democratic Committee chair. "She can get things done at all levels of government. She did that at the county level, she did that in Congress. And she'd done it as lieutenant governor. She's crisscrossed the state for six and a half years really being the ombudsman between local officials and the state of New York. She's done so much to carry the needs of the local communities to Albany as lieutenant governor, and now she's going to be in the seat that she's most prepared to be in and that's the governor of the state of New York."

Hochul is married to former U.S. Attorney William Hochul. They have two adult children.