Growing up I loved to watch Sex and the City with my mother. I fantasized about having a tight-knit group of girlfriends to have mimosas and brunch with, a gorgeous New York City apartment (with an impressive shoe collection) and the exciting life of Carrie Bradshaw. It’s no surprise that after all this time Sex and the City and my four favorite leading ladies, Sarah Jessica Parker, Kim Cattrall, Kristin Davis and Cynthia Nixon, hold a special place in my heart. Also, it’s no surprise that with the current political trainwreck, my heart sank when I recently saw Cynthia Nixon’s name in various news articles, fearing that I was about to lose another beloved show and T.V. character (Roseanne, I’m looking at you). My fears were abated, however, when I discovered that Cynthia Nixon does not dress up as Hitler and make disturbing references to the Holocaust (seriously Roseanne?); she is in fact running for Governor of New York, a position currently held by fellow Democratic Governor, Andrew M. Cuomo.
She is running on the platform that while both her and Cuomo are liberals and Democrats, Cuomo is not liberal enough and is part of the political problem that is ripping apart America and the Democratic party. While Cuomo has a solid track record over his two terms as governor by raising the minimum wage to $15, legalizing same-sex marriage, strengthening gun control and going after fracking, Nixon thinks he’s part of the problem, likening him to the Trump. According to Nixon, Cuomo has done nothing to stop the widening income inequality gap forming in the state. Nixon calls New York the “most unequal state in the country” in her campaign kick-off video and lays the blame on Cuomo. In fact, she goes as far as to accuse of him of not being a real Democrat, saying that the party needs better and bluer Democrats which gives evidence to a real divide in the party. The political spectrum is now heading towards the extremes; Republicans are split between the far-right and conservatives while the Democratic party is beginning to divide between those who want more liberal views and those who prefer moderacy.
In Nixon’s aforementioned kick-off video, she advocates towards working on “health care, ending massive incarceration, fixing our broken subway.” This same video begins with Nixon saying that “New York is my home,” referencing how she was born and raised in New York and even was in the hit HBO series Sex and the City, filmed and set in New York. The video continues showing her as an everyday person taking her children to public school, a fact she is distinctly proud of, discussing the inequality she sees in New York, especially in regards to the unequal opportunities and poverty affecting the children of New York. Her campaign video shows her activism throughout the years and her beautiful family, which is where the current controversy around Nixon’s campaign lies.
Nixon is part of the LGBTQ+ community and married to Christine Marinoni. Recently, Christine Quinn, a former City Council Speaker, former candidate for Mayor of New York City and proponent of Cuomo denounced Nixon’s run for office calling her an “unqualified lesbian”. Quinn who is openly gay states that “Cynthia Nixon was opposed to having a qualified lesbian become mayor of New York City. Now she wants an unqualified lesbian to be the governor of New York” and that while Nixon may be a celebrity and an activist she is still unqualified. While Nixon’s qualifications may be up for debate, the simplification of Nixon to simply a lesbian and the presumption that Nixon should have supported Quinn’s bid for mayor because they are both LGBTQ+ is absurd. Nixon seems unfazed by Quinn’s comments that gained attention in the media saying that “her being a lesbian and my being a lesbian is not the issue.” Nixon also capitalized on Quinn’s comments selling pins emblazoned with ‘unqualified lesbian’ for $5 to raise campaign money because she has refused to take money from corporations or special interest groups, instead targeting small donors.
Quinn’s commentary about Nixon’s qualifications, however, does remain unseen. Having a celebrity in office is not unheard of, after all Ronald Reagan and Donald Trump were celebrities before they took the highest political position in the country but perhaps Trump is not the best example. Nixon does have a solid track record of supporting political candidates and advocacy, and she is hard at work on the campaign trail touring impoverished housing complexes in Brooklyn and visiting the New York State Alliance for Quality Education to discuss a lack of funding in non-white communities, all important issues.
Nixon may not necessarily be qualified, but she is at least knowledgeable and at the end of the day, the point of an elected representative is that they represent us because they are one of us. While an actress may not necessarily represent the everyday people of New York, her rhetoric of having non-career politicians in office may endear her to the people of New York. After all, as Nixon says, “Cuomo has been in office eight years. Hardly anything has changed. If we want change, people like me, who have never run for office before, have to get involved.” If Nixon wins she will be the first openly LGBTQ+ governor in the state.