Cynthia Nixon kicked off her gubernatorial campaign in Brooklyn Tuesday, one day after announcing her bid for Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s job on Twitter.
Nixon prioritized ending economic and racial inequality during her speech at the Bethesda Healing Center in Brownsville, and blamed Cuomo’s corporate interests for widening the gap between rich and poor New Yorkers.
“This is not something that happens by mistake. It comes from a choice to slash taxes on corporations and the super rich and slash services on everybody else,” Nixon said, deeming Cuomo a “good investment” for the likes of the Koch brothers, who are prominent political donors. “For the past eight years, that is a choice that has been made by our governor, Andrew Cuomo.”
Taking another jab at the governor’s campaign, Nixon highlighted the conviction of ex-Cuomo aide Joseph Percoco as an example of the dysfunction in Albany.
“If Washington is a swamp, Albany is a cesspool,” Nixon said, reiterating that she would not be accepting any corporate funds for her campaign.
The former “Sex and the City” star promised to work toward fully funding public schools, an agenda she has rallied for in the past.
“Our schools are pushing white students into college and black and brown students into the criminal justice system,” she said, promising to target the funding and policing of public schools in low-income neighborhoods.
While walking to the event from the Sutter Avenue-Rutland Road subway station, Nixon highlighted the “quintessential Cuomo MTA,” which had delayed her commute by 40 minutes. She vowed to fix the subway — a service she and all other New Yorkers use every day; one that Cuomo doesn’t, Nixon said in her speech.
Another issue that she promised to address, and the crowd at the campaign event cheered the most for, is strengthening rent control and increasing affordable housing.
“We need rent laws to be straightened,” Ditmas Park resident Winsome Pendergrass told Nixon after the event. “So please, remember us.”
“I will,” Nixon replied.
Pendergrass, 59, believes that Nixon would listen to her as a woman, more than she felt the men in government have, calling the candidate “approachable” and “a breath of fresh air.”
Nixon promised to target making minimum wage a reality for every New Yorker, and vowed to fight for women’s rights, the DREAM Act, and ending mass incarceration.
During her speech, she acknowledged the “thousands of women” running for office across the country, and said that she was “honored to be joining their ranks.”
“We are realizing that if we want things to change, we are going to have to do it ourselves,” she said.
