NEW YORK, NY — Actor, activist Cynthia Nixon announced her campaign for governor of New York yesterday, releasing a video in which she signals a challenge to business as usual in Albany and Andrew Cuomo in particular.
Nixon (born April 9, 1966) as an actress, is known for her portrayal of Miranda Hobbes in the HBO series Sex and the City (1998–2004).
“I love New York. I’ve never lived anywhere else,” says Nixon in her video, which shows her with wife, Christine, and sons Charlie and Max. “But something has to change. We want our government to work again, on healthcare, ending mass incarceration, fixing our broken subway. We are sick of politicians who care more about headlines and power than they do about us. It can’t just be business as usual anymore.”
Watch Nixon’s announcement video at: https://youtu.be/SiOo4C2CiRQ
Nixon’s candidacy gives Democrats a more progressive candidate than incumbent Andrew Cuomo.
For the last 17 years, Nixon has advocated for better schools and equitable education funding across the state, including acting as spokesperson and organizer for the Alliance for Quality Education.
She is an advocate for LGBTQ equality, and helped create Fight Back New York, an effort to politically oppose state Senators who opposed same sex marriage for New York. The campaign raised $800,000 and the group took credit in helping elect three new votes pivotal to legalizing same-sex marriage. Nixon, a longtime advocate for women’s reproductive rights, worked with Planned Parenthood in Albany.
Nixon grew up in New York City, where she was raised by her single mother in a one bedroom, fifth-floor walk-up. She began working as an actor when she was 12 to earn money to pay for her college education, and was able to put herself through Barnard College at Columbia University.
For her role in Sex and the City, she won the 2004 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series. She reprised the role in the films Sex and the City (2008) and Sex and the City 2 (2010). Other films include Amadeus (1984), James White (2015), and A Quiet Passion (2016), where she played Emily Dickinson.
Nixon made her Broadway debut in the 1980 revival of The Philadelphia Story. Other Broadway credits include The Real Thing (1983), Hurlyburly (1983), Indiscretions (1995), The Women (2001), and Wit (2012). She won the 2006 Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for Rabbit Hole, the 2008 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series for Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, the 2009 Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album for An Inconvenient Truth, and the 2017 Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play for The Little Foxes.
Other television roles include playing political figures such as Eleanor Roosevelt in Warm Springs (2005), Michele Davis in Too Big to Fail (2011), and Nancy Reagan in the 2016 television film Killing Reagan.
She attended New York City public schools, and her three children are all New York City public school students or graduates.
Her Democratic primary opponent, Andrew Cuomo, is seeking a third term.
A statement from Nixon’s campaign reads “Over the past seven years of Cuomo’s tenure, New York has become the single most unequal state in the country, with power readily handed over to Republicans in Albany. Millionaires and billionaires have seen massive tax cut windfalls and handouts that loot the state budget, taking vital resources from New York’s children, seniors, and economically disadvantaged. Cynthia, on the other hand, is refusing to take a dime of corporate money.”
In the coming weeks, Nixon plans to travel across the state to hear from voters about how “we can make New York state better, together.”
If elected Nixon would be the first woman governor of New York and its first [known] LGBTQ governor.
For more information about Cynthia Nixon and her campaign, visit www.CynthiaforNewYork.com.