'Sex and the City' actress Cynthia Nixon to run for New York governor

ALBANY - Cynthia Nixon, the Sex and the City star and education activist, has made it official: She intends to challenge Gov. Andrew Cuomo in a Democratic primary this fall.

Nixon launched her campaign Monday with a video on her Twitter page, ending months of speculation about whether she would jump into the race.

The video highlights her New York roots, showing her riding the subway and speaking at various rallies — while noting she grew up in a fifth-floor walk-up apartment in New York City.

Her entrance into the race ensures Cuomo will face an intra-party challenge from his left as Nixon, 51, attempts to woo liberal leaders who have long been wary of the governor.  

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She will face an uphill climb, however: Cuomo, 60, has more than $30 million in his campaign account and a public-opinion poll Monday showed he remains the clear frontrunner.

"We are sick of politicians who care more about headlines and power than they do about us," Nixon says in the video. "It can’t just be business as usual anymore.” 

The primary election will be held Sept. 13.

Backing Nixon

Liberal organizations in New York had spent months courting candidates to challenge Cuomo, a second-term governor who has clashed at times with some in his party's left flank.

Nixon, who would be the state's first woman and first LGBT governor, said in August that she was considering a run, reiterating her stance several times over the ensuing months.

In response to Nixon's launch, Cuomo's campaign issued a statement saying it is "great that we live in a democracy where anyone can run for office."

His campaign touted his progressive credentials, highlighting his efforts to pass same-sex marriage, increase the minimum wage, implement stronger gun-control measure and launch a free tuition program for qualified students at SUNY schools.

"We look forward to building on that record as we continue to fight and deliver for New York families statewide," read the statement, which did not mention Nixon by name.

Last week, Cuomo was asked if a potential Nixon run made him nervous.

"I'm not nervous about whoever runs," he told reporters in Manhattan. "There will be people who run. That's called elections and that's fine."

Nixon has made several appearances at the state Capitol in recent years, often in support of boosting education funding for New York's public schools.

She has also traveled to Albany to push for same-sex marriage — which Cuomo successfully convinced the Legislature to approve in 2011.

Winning support

Nixon is a public-school mother who has championed the need for more funding for education, said Billy Easton, executive director of the Alliance for Quality Education, a labor-backed group she has worked with.

"It’s very exciting," Easton said of Nixon's announcement.

"Cynthia Nixon has been an incredible champion of public schools, and she is a progressive Democrat. I think a lot of people are tired of the middle of the road or even conservative at times positions of the governor on many issues."

Nixon's campaign received early backing from Fordham Law School professor Zephyr Teachout, who challenged Cuomo in a Democratic primary in 2014, receiving about a third of the vote.

Teachout, who was listed as Nixon's campaign treasurer, said she would help Nixon's run, saying she has been impressed with Nixon.

"It’s the right person at the right moment," Teachout told the USA TODAY Network's Albany Bureau. 

"She has been involved in education policy for some time now, but I have just been really impressed with, one, how much she cares about this state and, second, her capacities, her questions, her curiosity and also her depth of knowledge."

Teachout said Nixon would be undaunted by Cuomo's campaign war chest and would run a campaign aimed at progressive voters disenfranchised with Cuomo's eight years in office.

Uphill climb

A Siena College poll released Monday showed Cuomo with a strong lead over Nixon in a potential primary. 

Among registered Democrats, 66 percent said they favor Cuomo in a Cuomo-Nixon primary.

Nixon picked up 19 percent, according to the poll. Among Democratic voters, 59 percent said they didn't know of her or didn't have an opinion of her.

Voters were polled before Nixon officially entered the race, however.

"A poll is a snapshot in time and today the picture has changed," Siena pollster Steve Greenberg said Monday. "But heading into today, we know where New Yorkers stand at the very beginning of Cynthia Nixon's campaign."

In her video, Nixon touched on the issues she intends to highlight in her campaign, calling for an end to mass incarceration and criticizing Cuomo's handling of the oft-hobbled New York City subway system

"I love New York," Nixon said in the video. "I've never lived anywhere else. But something has to change."

Race for governor

She enters a Democratic field that also includes Cuomo and former state Sen. Terry Gipson, D-Rhinebeck, Dutchess County.

Former Syracuse Mayor Stephanie Miner, a Democrat who has clashed with Cuomo, has also considered entering the race.

Republican leaders, meanwhile, have been coalescing behind Dutchess County Executive Marc Molinaro as a candidate, with state Sen. John DeFrancisco of the Syracuse area and Joseph Holland, a former housing commissioner under then-Gov. George Pataki, also seeking support.

Monday's Siena poll showed Cuomo with strong support from self-described liberals, with 69 percent saying they view him favorably.

But Teachout's run in 2014 highlighted a divide among some liberal leaders and activists over Cuomo, who has been criticized for not doing more to unseat Republicans from power in the closely divided state Senate.

The influential Working Families Party, a labor-backed third party, "has a very important decision to make," said the party's state director, Bill Lipton.

In 2014, the party was split between Cuomo and Teachout, but ultimately chose Cuomo after he vowed to forward progressive policies in his second term — including helping Democrats win control of the state Senate, which hasn't happened. 

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, meanwhile, came to Cuomo's aid to help him win the Working Families Party endorsement that year, but de Blasio is now Cuomo's chief foe and is close with Nixon.

"We have 232 members of our state committee who are elected from across the state, from western New York to the east end of Long Island, and we are going to be getting together and debating this topic and making a very important decision," Lipton said.

JCampbell1@Gannett.com

JSpector@Gannett.com

Jon Campbell is a correspondent with USA TODAY Network's Albany Bureau, and Joseph Spector is bureau chief.