Nov 20: Hernandez Announces Campaign for New York State Comptroller

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 19, 2025

Contact:
Brennan Gorman
Hernandez for New York
(631) 921-5749
brennantgorman@gmail.com

JOSEPH HERNANDEZ ANNOUNCES CAMPAIGN FOR NEW YORK STATE COMPTROLLER

Hernandez is a successful entrepreneur, investor, and biotechnology leader.

ALBANY, NY, Successful entrepreneur, philanthropist, and biotechnology industry leader Joseph Hernandez today announced his candidacy for New York State Comptroller. Hernandez will seek the Republican nomination to challenge Democrat incumbent Tom DiNapoli.

“The State Comptroller must be a strong, independent fiscal champion who stands up for taxpayers and restores confidence in New York’s finances,” said Joseph Hernandez. “I’m a business builder, not a career politician, and I have a real plan to transform the Office of State Comptroller and use it to provide tax relief for overburdened New York families, build the state’s innovation economy and manufacturing base, and create high paying new jobs.”

Born in Camagüey, Cuba, Joseph’s father was a political prisoner under the Castro regime. At the age of seven, Joseph and his family fled communist rule through the Mariel Boatlift, arriving in the United States with nothing but hope, and a determination to build a better life.

Over the course of his career, Joseph has founded and led more than a dozen healthcare and pharmaceutical companies, bringing five public on the Nasdaq exchange.

After attending public school in Florida, Joseph earned a Bachelor of Science, a Master of Science, and an MBA from the University of Florida. He later completed a Master of Science at Yale University and is pursuing a Master’s in Global Healthcare Leadership at the University of Oxford.

Joseph began his career at Merck and continued at Affymetrix in Silicon Valley, where he oversaw the launch of a dozen groundbreaking diagnostic products. At Digene Corp., Joseph helped pioneer the first FDA approved test for human papillomavirus (HPV), a major milestone in cancer prevention and early detection, which led to the company’s acquisition by Qiagen.

The New York State Comptroller serves as the state’s chief financial officer and fiscal watchdog, responsible for:

• Overseeing state spending, auditing agencies, approving contracts, and ensuring taxpayer money is used responsibly.
• Managing the 290 billion dollar plus pension fund as its sole trustee and safeguarding retiree benefits.
• Auditing local governments and school districts to ensure fiscal discipline and compliance with the property tax cap.
• Monitoring major public authorities, including the MTA, to expose waste, mismanagement, and excessive debt.
• Investigating fraud and abuse, and working with prosecutors to hold corrupt actors accountable.

As State Comptroller, Joseph will modernize the office and use its authority to protect taxpayers, create high paying jobs, and combat wasteful government spending, especially in New York’s debt ridden public authorities like the MTA:

• Restore fiscal responsibility through AI powered contract oversight.
  Joseph will use the Comptroller’s constitutional authority to review state contracts and deploy AI tools to detect fraud, waste, and irregularities in real time.
• Lower property taxes by enforcing the State Property Tax Cap.
  He will hold school districts and local governments accountable when they exceed the cap and improve investment performance to provide real fiscal relief.
• Launch an AI and Technology Investment Fund within the pension system.
  Joseph will strategically invest in AI, biotechnology, clean energy, and advanced manufacturing to rebuild New York’s innovation economy and create high paying jobs.
• Bring transparency and accountability to the MTA.
  With more than 46 billion dollars in debt and nearly 800 million dollars in annual fare and toll evasion losses, Joseph will use the office’s oversight authority to stop wasteful spending and demand fiscal discipline.

After Zohran Mamdani won the Democrat primary for New York City mayor, Joseph collected more than fifteen thousand petition signatures to qualify as an independent candidate in the general election.

“My father was held prisoner by Fidel Castro because of his political beliefs,” Hernandez said. “When a self avowed communist won the Democrat primary for mayor, I felt an obligation to step forward to defend freedom and the American Dream. As State Comptroller, I will use the extraordinary authority of the office to protect taxpayers, return fiscal responsibility, and expand opportunity for all New Yorkers.”

Joseph is the proud father of three children, Alexander, 18; Sebastian, 14; and Estella, 11.