Now, the 74-year-old Democrat, who abruptly ascended to the office after a scandal felled her predecessor, is going back to her old job after a nearly eight-month turn in the spotlight.
This time she will be serving under another woman, Letitia James, another Democrat who was sworn into the job in Albany late Monday night.
Underwood will be able to look back on a record as a leading antagonist of President Donald Trump — if only briefly.
She sued to put Trump's charitable foundation out of business, accusing him of running it as a wing of his private businesses and political campaign. Underwood also used the courts to challenge his administration on a multitude of policy fronts, including opposing its push to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census.
