All that talk has turned to action: Former Sex and the City star Cynthia Nixon has announced her run for the New York governor’s seat. The actress made it official on Monday, and she plans to run in the Democratic Primary against current Governor Andrew Cuomo.
Nixon, who was born in New York and starred in one of the quintessential NYC-based TV series, was rumored to run in the gubernatorial race for months. She posted her official announcement to Twitter on Monday, along with an ad and a link to donate to her campaign. Her campaign website, cynthiafornewyork.com, had difficulty loading, seemingly overwhelmed by traffic.
“New York is my home,” she says in the ad, which depicts Nixon in her home with her family, taking her son to school, walking through Manhattan, and riding the subway. “I’ve never lived anywhere else. When I grew up here, it was just my mom and me in a one-bedroom, fifth-floor walk-up. New York is where I was raised and where I’m raising my kids. I’m a proud public school graduate and a prouder public school parent. I was given chances I just don’t see for most of New York’s kids today. Our leaders are letting us down. We are now the most unequal state in the entire country, with both incredible wealth and extreme poverty. Half the kids in our upstate cities live below the poverty line. How did we let this happen? I love New York. I’ve never wanted to live anywhere else, but something has to change. We want our government to work again on health care, ending mass incarceration, fixing our broken subway. We are sick of politicians who care more about headlines and power than they do about us.”
The ad also included footage of Nixon giving political speeches at events including a Human Rights Campaign gala, the People’s State of the Union event, last year’s Stonewall Inn LGBTQ rally in support of immigrant rights, the 2017 Women’s March on New York City, and the 2009 National Equality March in Washington, D.C.
Liberal groups reportedly had urged Nixon to run, which she addressed during an appearance on the Today show last August.
“I think there are a lot of people who would like me to run for a variety of reasons,” she told cohosts Al Roker, Dylan Dreyer, and guest host John Cena. “And I think the No. 1 is education.”
With three children (Samantha, 20, Charles Ezekiel, 14, and Max Ellington, 6), Nixon later explained, “Gov. Cuomo likes to say we spend more per pupil [than] any other state. And that is actually true, but the only reason that is true is that we spend so much in our wealthiest districts. So that evens out. Between our hundred richest schools and our hundred poorest schools, there’s a $10 dollar gap on what we spend per pupil.”
She had also joined activists outside the city’s Stonewall Inn in February 2017 in denouncing the president’s proposed immigration ban. “We must fight hard and yell loud for ourselves,” Nixon said. “We have come too far to be turned back now, but we must fight just as hard and yell just as loud for Muslims — both those here and those trying to get here.”
Having married her wife Christine Marinoni in 2012, Nixon has been an outspoken defender of her fellow LGBTQ citizens.
She penned an op-ed in 2015 supporting LGBTQ activists to continue the fight for equality and stood in front of thousands during the Women’s March in response to Trump’s inauguration. “We are not rolling back the tarp on the progress that we have made,” she proclaimed. “To every woman here who won’t give up, women make the change.”
Nixon now joins the still-growing list of celebrities entering the political arena — the most notable one being the former Apprentice star and current commander-in-chief, Donald Trump.
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