The rise of Cuomo shows that times of tragedy can make very unlikely political heroes.

It's not that Cuomo was previously regarded as a bad manager -- it's that he was an unpopular one.

Cuomo's name was floated as a potential 2020 candidate before the race got underway. His name was asked across a bunch of state and national polls . The most frequent share Cuomo got in those polls was 0%, and he averaged just 0.4%.

The lack of enthusiasm for Cuomo nationally was reinforced by how lukewarm his support was in his home state. When matched up against other political figures from New York early in 2019, just 17% said Cuomo would make the best president in a Quinnipiac University poll . That wasn't too far ahead of Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (11%). It was well behind former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg (28%).