Mario Matthew Cuomo, (June 15, 1932 – January 1, 2015) was an American politician and the Democratic governor of the State of New York from 1983 to 1994. An unapologetic liberal, Cuomo’s fiery keynote speech at the 1984 Democratic Nominating Convention earned him a national reputation as an eloquent critic of the Reagan administration. A skilled orator in an age when ideological battles were waged in television soundbites, he was a consistent voice of dissent against political trends such as welfare reform in the 1990s. He flirted with presidential runs in 1988 and 1992, but ultimately confined his political aspirations to New York, losing his bid for a fourth term to Republican George Pataki in 1994. He died of natural causes due to heart failure in Manhattan, New York City on New Year's Day, 2015.