Raj Goyle

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Raj Goyle earned a high school diploma from Wichita Collegiate School, a B.S. from Duke University in 1997, and a J.D. from Harvard Law School in 2000. His professional experience includes working for the Center for American Progress, as a contract attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union, as a lecturer at Wichita State University, and as an entrepreneur.[1][2]

Who are you? Tell us about yourself.

I’m Raj Goyle, and I’m running for Comptroller to be New York’s affordability watchdog. For 20 years, this office has been a passive bystander while families have been crushed by skyrocketing utility bills and a brutal housing crisis. New Yorkers deserve a CFO who doesn’t just balance the books, but acts as a guardian for the people.

New York is where my story began and where my future lives. As the son of immigrants, a father raising two daughters, and a caregiver for my mother and mother-in-law on our block in NYC, I live the daily struggles of New York families.

As an entrepreneur who founded and sold a successful company, I bring the executive expertise needed to oversee our $300 billion pension fund. With the soul of an activist and the mind of an entrepreneur, I reject the false choice between high returns and our values. We will divest from fossil fuels and corporate greed while investing in New York’s clean energy transition and affordable housing.

My career has been defined by the fight for justice—from defending civil rights at the ACLU after 9/11 to flipping a deep-red legislative seat by building a working-class coalition. As Comptroller, I will use the power of the audit to root out waste, curb corporate giveaways, hold utilities accountable, and fight back against Trump’s assault on our democracy. I will bring this office out of Albany and into our neighborhoods to ensure the Empire State finally works for the people who built it.

Please list below 3 key messages of your campaign. What are the main points you want voters to remember about your goals for your time in office?

New Yorkers are being squeezed by soaring energy costs while investor-owned utilities like Con Edison and National Grid pad executive pockets and shareholder dividends. As Comptroller, I will launch aggressive utility fairness audits of rate-case claims and use the office’s existing authority to scrutinize PSC-approved spending, state contracts, and corporate tax breaks. I will file shareholder resolutions directly linking executive pay to ratepayer outcomes. Rates keep going up because no one is holding these monopolies accountable; I am prepared to step up and protect New York ratepayers.The $300 billion New York State Common Retirement Fund must reflect our progressive values. I will fully divest our state pension funds from fossil fuel companies to combat the climate crisis, stop buying international bonds that fund oppression, and immediately divest from corporate entities like Palantir that enable mass surveillance, genocide and harmful federal deportation pipelines. Our public retirement funds must safeguard our future, not bankroll systems that exploit or endanger our communities. I will ensure our investments are secure, ethical, and forward-looking.The financial power of the Comptroller’s office should actively build up New York communities, not line the pockets of Wall Street middlemen. I will harness state investment capital to fuel the construction of deeply affordable housing across New York, combatting our housing crisis directly. Additionally, I will modernize our systems using best-in-class software to optimize returns and overhaul the state's broken unclaimed funds system. Right now, New York returns far less lost cash to its residents than other states; I will return that $20 billion back to working families and local small businesses.

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

I am deeply passionate about economic equity, corporate accountability, climate justice, and consumer protection. I believe government must aggressively intervene when corporate monopolies and Wall Street interests exploit working-class people—whether that is through skyrocketing energy bills or unaffordable housing. I am committed to leveraging public capital for environmental sustainability, ensuring New York is an absolute leader in fossil fuel divestment. I also deeply care about building strong, transparent public services, ensuring our state agencies deliver concrete financial outcomes, affordable childcare, and infrastructure support for the everyday New Yorkers who keep our state running.

Who do you look up to? Whose example would you like to follow, and why?

I look up to Nelson Mandela. His life stands as the ultimate testament to the power of unyielding perseverance and institutional transformation. Mandela demonstrated that real leadership requires moving far beyond temporary political standard-bearing to execute deep, systemic change. He successfully confronted deeply entrenched, oppressive structures and completely redesigned them to serve the collective good. I strive to follow his example by utilizing the financial and regulatory tools of the Comptroller's office to dismantle corporate and systemic inequities, ensuring our state's vast public resources protect the rights and dignity of every single New Yorker.

What characteristics or principles are most important for an elected official?

An elected official must possess absolute integrity, unyielding courage, and a transparent commitment to public accountability. It is easy to protect the status quo, but true leadership requires the boldness to challenge powerful entities—whether they are corporate monopolies or entrenched political interests—on behalf of everyday people. Empathy is equally critical; leaders must never lose sight of how policy decisions directly impact a family’s ability to pay rent, afford groceries, or keep their lights on. Finally, a dedication to data-driven, practical results ensures that progressive ideals are successfully translated into functional public outcomes.

What do you believe are the core responsibilities for someone elected to this office?

The New York State Comptroller is the independent chief financial officer and ultimate watchdog of the state's multi-billion dollar budget. The core responsibilities include serving as the sole trustee of the $300 billion Common Retirement Fund to ensure fiscal health and responsible, values-aligned investments. Additionally, the Comptroller must conduct rigorous, independent audits of state agencies, public authorities, and private contractors to eliminate waste, fraud, and corporate exploitation. It is the Comptroller's fundamental duty to safeguard taxpayer dollars, ensure fiscal transparency, protect consumer rights, and manage the state's multi-billion dollar unclaimed funds pool efficiently.

What legacy would you like to leave?

I want to leave a legacy where the New York State Comptroller’s office is universally recognized as the most aggressive, effective defender of the public interest in the country. I want New Yorkers to look back and see that we successfully transformed a quiet bureaucratic agency into a proactive powerhouse that directly lowered utility burdens, injected billions into local affordable housing, fully extracted public dollars from fossil fuels and harmful foreign equities, and restored deep trust in our government's ability to deliver real financial equity for working families.

What was your very first job? How long did you have it?

When I was 15 years old, my very first job was working as a clerk in a local medical office. My main responsibility was filing health insurance forms and patient paperwork. Navigating that endless administrative gridlock day after day provided me with a stark, early lesson in just how deeply broken, convoluted, and dysfunctional the American healthcare billing system truly is for everyday people trying to access basic medical care.

What is something that has been a struggle in your life?

As the son of immigrants, navigating the path as a first-generation American while breaking barriers in historically non-diverse political and corporate spaces has often been a profound challenge. Overcoming the initial skepticism of entering rooms where very few leaders looked like me taught me resilience and the value of building inclusive coalitions. At the same time, I have always struggled with impatience. When I see systems that are fundamentally broken or corporate actors taking advantage of working families, my immediate instinct is to fix it right now—I find bureaucratic delays infuriating, but it drives me to work harder.

What organizations or individuals have endorsed your campaign?

I am incredibly proud to have built a broad coalition of national and local progressive leaders, grassroots advocacy groups, and environmental champions who share our vision for a fairer New York. We are also honored to have the backing of attorney and advocate Zephyr Teachout, U.S. Representative Pramila Jayapal (D-WA), U.S. Representative Ro Khanna (D-CA), and Ali Najmi, chair of the Mayor's Advisory Committee on the Judiciary. Our campaign has been officially endorsed by the Progressive Victory Fund, Hindus for Human Rights Action, EMGAGE Action, DIvest NY, New York Communities for Change (NYCC), Sunrise Movement NYC, EMGAGE Action and the Muslim Democratic Club of New York.

What was the first historical event that happened in your lifetime that you remember?

The Challenger space shuttle disaster in 1986. I remember the profound sense of shared national grief, but also how it later underscored the absolute necessity of rigorous public safety oversight, scientific integrity, and transparency in complex, high-stakes public endeavors.