Is Cynthia Nixon’s Progressive Campaign for NY Gov Doomed?

Is Cynthia Nixon’s Progressive Campaign for NY Gov Doomed?

There has been a lot of buzz about actress Cynthia Nixon and her Bernie-esque challenge to Andrew Cuomo in the race for governor of New York. Nixon has garnered support from many in the progressive wing of the Democratic party and even some conservatives who would love to see Cuomo unseated. It might not be enough, however.

A new poll shows Cuomo holding a sizable and perhaps insurmountable lead.

Jesse McKinley reports at the New York Times:

Cuomo Stretches Lead Over Cynthia Nixon in 2018 Election Poll

With exactly three months to go until the Democratic primary for governor, the two-term incumbent, Andrew M. Cuomo, has slightly stretched his sizable lead over his Democratic rival, the actress Cynthia Nixon, according to a new poll.

Mr. Cuomo, 60, holds a 35-point advantage among likely voters over Ms. Nixon — 61-26 percent — according to the Siena College poll released on Wednesday. His lead over the Republican candidate, Marcus J. Molinaro, is narrower: 19 points, 56 to 37 percent, though Mr. Molinaro, the Dutchess County executive, is little known by most voters, the poll found.

Ms. Nixon had trimmed Mr. Cuomo’s lead to 31 points in an April poll by Siena, continuing a steady rise in voter surveys since declaring her candidacy in March. But the last month has seen Mr. Cuomo’s glossy coronation as the party’s preferred candidate at the state convention in late May, forcing Ms. Nixon — making her first run for public office — to begin petitioning to challenge him on the Sept. 13 ballot.

Nixon is hitting all the right notes for the left. She wants free college, driver’s licenses for all, bigger taxes on the rich and more. Yet she just isn’t breaking through with a majority of New Yorkers.

Jazz Shaw of Hot Air says it’s all over:

It’s Time To Stick A Fork In Cynthia Nixon’s Campaign

It’s been a fun and sometimes wild ride in the New York gubernatorial Democratic primary this spring. Upstart Sex and the City actress Cynthia Nixon got a lot of people excited with her challenge to the state’s scandal-prone governor, Andrew Cuomo. That was especially true in the media, where liberal analysts were falling all over themselves to find signs of life in her campaign.

But as the heat of summer approaches, a new Siena poll shows that not only is Nixon failing to chip away at Cuomo’s massive lead, she’s actually losing ground. I was first alerted to the latest set of numbers last night on Twitter by Steve Kornacki.

NY Gov Dem primary poll (Siena)

Andrew Cuomo 61%
Cynthia Nixon 26%

By race:
White: Cuomo 57-30%
Latino: Cuomo 69-23%
Black: Cuomo 74-17%https://t.co/DSFeDMEV0W

— Steve Kornacki (@SteveKornacki) June 13, 2018

Shaw notes that Nixon is even losing among women:

The full numbers are available here but no matter how you slice the electorate, there’s really no good news here for Nixon. Cuomo is beating her by forty points in the Five Boroughs and a whopping 63 points in the suburbs. As I predicted when she first entered the race, Nixon is doing a little bit better upstate where more conservative voters really don’t like Cuomo, but she’s still losing by almost ten points there. She’ even losing among women 63-27.

The primary is September 13th, so Nixon still has time to try to turn this around but she is miles from where she needs to be in order to win.

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