Cynthia Nixon's Team Reportedly Encouraged by Andrew Cuomo's 'Meltdown' Over Governor Run Rumors

Cynthia Nixon, star of Sex and the City and the criminally underrated 2005 film Little Manhattan, hasn’t confirmed whether or not she’ll challenge New York Governor Andrew Cuomo in this year’s upcoming gubernatorial primary. But it appears she’s encouraged by how nuts Cuomo’s been driven by the mere threat of competition—about as nuts as he gets when you, say, correctly point out he’s responsible for the NYC subway system—and we’re inching ever closer to a Governor Miranda.

It was reported last week that Nixon, a longstanding ally of NYC Mayor and Cuomo nemesis Bill de Blasio, has been having “serious conversations” about challenging Cuomo as a progressive Democratic candidate. And though the governor attempted to seem glib about possibly facing Nixon in the upcoming primary, he most certainly was not, as in the aftermath of the rumor report, he made cute little “jokes” to reporters about Nixon not being a big enough celeb to scare him (“I’m hoping that Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie and Billy Joel don’t get into the race. If it’s just about name recognition, that would really be a problem,” he “joked,”) and attributing her run to Vladimir Putin and “Russian interference,” ha, ha, hahaha, ha. (Note to Cuomo: if you are in fact voted out of office, please do not consider any form of comedy as an alternative career.)

Indeed, it’s not outlandish to suggest he’s a teensy bit scared, and the more visibly nervous he gets, the more likely he’ll have a reason to be nervous. A source “within Nixon’s orbit” told the NY Daily News on Sunday that they were pleased to see Cuomo handled the news with his usual grace. “They’re very encouraged by the way Cuomo reacted this past week,” the source said. “They called it a meltdown. A freakout.”

Nixon’s camp was also reportedly encouraged by the response from a number of Cuomo allies, including upstate Representative Sean Patrick Maloney, who criticized Nixon for challenging a governor with a strong LGBTQ record (Cuomo pushed for the state’s legalization of gay marriage in 2011). “No one is going to be swayed by one statement, but it telegraphed a lot of fear on the part of Cuomo,” the source said.

Though I have still not forgiven Nixon for Sex and the City 2, I welcome anything that forces Cuomo to reckon with his decidedly spotty record as Governor, as his major hits include letting the aforementioned subway system descend into dysfunctional madness; vetoing the kinds of progressive reforms he professed to support as a candidate, and permitting a group of breakaway Democrats to align with Republicans in the New York State Senate. At the very least, this summer should be fun.