March 19, 2018

It’s Official: Cynthia Nixon Is Running for Governor of New York

“I love New York. I’ve never wanted to live anywhere else, but something has to change.”

After weeks of hinting at a potential run, actress Cynthia Nixon announced on Monday that she will officially challenge two-term incumbent Andrew Cuomo in the Democratic primary for New York’s governor race. 

“I love New York. I’ve never wanted to live anywhere else, but something has to change,” Nixon says in a video that accompanied her announcement. “We want our government to work again, on healthcare, ending mass incarceration, fixing our broken subway.”

The two-minute video features Nixon discussing rising inequality rates throughout the state while riding both New York’s Metro-North and New York City’s much-maligned subway system. (Nixon owns an apartment in the East Village.)

“We are sick of politicians who care more about headlines and power than they do about us,” Nixon continued.

The announcement on Monday comes hours after the release of a new Siena poll that showed Cuomo holding a significant lead over his new primary challenger, with registered Democrats saying they strongly preferred the current governor over Nixon by a 66 to 19 percent margin. “While Nixon does a little better among younger and upstate Democrats, she doesn’t have the support of more than one-quarter of either group,” the Siena pollster Steven Greenberg said. The primary is scheduled for September 13.

Nixon’s video prompted a slew of humorous tweets invoking her role as Miranda Hobbe’s on HBO’s “Sex and the City.” The actress has been a prominent face in New York City politics for years, and was a strong supporter of Mayor Bill de Blasio’s successful 2013 campaign against Christine Quinn.

De Blasio, whose time at Gracie Mansion has been marked by public feuds with Cuomo, recently praised Nixon as “extraordinary.”

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