Cynthia Nixon ramped up her gubernatorial campaign by making a stop at “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” on Wednesday night.
The “Sex and the City” star, who’s vying to unseat Gov. Andrew Cuomo, made her case as to why she’s the right pick for New York in 2020. Nixon assured Colbert that her campaign isn’t a farce and that she’s “100 percent” making a real run for Cuomo’s seat.
“I’m running because I’m a life long New Yorker and I love this state,” Nixon said. “I just know we could do so much better.”
She added, “We’re a blue state, we’re a proudly Democratic state, but we’ve got governor in there who governs like a Republican.”
Nixon told the late-night host that she thinks Cuomo is a Democrat in name only, as many of his positions are more centrist and right-leaning, similar to former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.
“He’s pleasing his big money donors. He has a lot of Republican big money donors,” Nixon said before adding that she won’t accept any corporate donations for her campaign. “He came up during the Mitt Romney time when centrism was the name of the game.”
Nixon believes that Cuomo has chosen to please conservative lawmakers rather than fight for progressive causes like campaign finance reform, funding public schools and fixing the criminal justice system.
“He allowed the Republicans in the state senate to gerrymander their own districts, which supressed Democratic voters and particularly Democratic voters of color,” Nixon told Colbert. “He says he works with the Republicans, but frankly, often at times, it looks more like he works for the Republicans.”
Nixon also addressed concerns about having another celebrity run for office in the wake of Donald Trump’s rise to the White House. The actress doesn’t think fame is necessarily a bad thing when it comes to politics, it just depends on how stars use their platforms.
“I don’t think there’s anything inherently wrong with celebrity in politics,” she said. “It gives you a platform, but it’s what you choose to do with that platform. Do you choose to give yourself and other one percenters a massive tax break that they don’t need, or do you choose to advocate for important things that need your voice?”
