David Alexander Paterson (born May 20, 1954) is an American politician and member of the Democratic Party who was the 55th governor of New York, succeeding Eliot Spitzer and serving out nearly three years of Spitzer's term from March 2008 to the end of 2010. He is the first legally blind person to be sworn in as governor of a U.S. state, and is the first African American governor of New York.