“Cynthia Moved the Debate”
Cynthia Nixon did not defeat Andrew Cuomo. But her policy director argues in an interview that her campaign opened up new spaces for progressives and the Left in New York politics.
Cynthia Nixon during a rally for universal rent control on August 16, 2018 in New York City. Eduardo Munoz Alvarez / Getty Images
If you had said a year ago that Cynthia Nixon, the former Sex and the City actress, would be taking on Andrew Cuomo in the Democratic primary for New York governor, running on a strong progressive platform, and identifying publicly as a “democratic socialist,” few people would have believed you. Yet she did all that in the past few months — and more, according to Waleed Shahid, Nixon’s policy director.
Jacobin assistant editor Ella Mahony spoke with Shahid on the labor movement’s support of Cuomo, the decline of the group of Democrats in the State Senate that caucused with Republicans called the Independent Democratic Conference (IDC), how the campaign opened up space for left challenges in New York politics, and more.
Elizabeth Mahony
Let’s start with a general reflection on the Nixon campaign. What do you think the main takeaway for the Left should be?
Waleed Shahid
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