Cynthia Nixon, from TV to politics in New York
Cynthia Nixon rose to fame as Miranda - Carrie's red-haired lawyer - but the actress was the only one raised in that city, in one of the most fashionable neighborhoods in Manhattan, the Upper West Side. It was from that series - all a television phenomenon about the entanglements of four liberated and well-off friends - when her phone began to ring without stopping.
Now, at 52 years old and with a Republican stamp, Nixon is fighting for the Democratic candidacy to become governor of the State of New York. She has been involved in activism for more than 15 years, focused on the defense of public education, gay marriage and other social causes. In 2013, she was part of the electoral team of Mayor Bill de Blasio, precisely the fierce rival of the current governor, also a Democrat, Andrew Cuomo, who has two terms and wants to go for the third, despite the actress.
What else do we know from her? According to El País, Nixon started acting at age 12. She says that in her first auditions she tried to stand out among the children artists by becoming introverted, trying to look mysterious, interesting. A vein that has continued to explode, for example, in her recent interpretation of the poet Emily Dickinson, for which she was nominated for best actress in the latest edition of the Oscars. But the silent gaze of child prodigy auditions no longer goes with its political facet.
If she won the election, Nixon would be the first woman to hold that position. Also, the first person openly homosexual or bisexual. In 2003 she separated from Dany Mozes, a photographer and teacher with whom she had had two children, and shortly after she started dating a woman named Christine Marironi, who worked in the city's Education Department and was a well-known activist in the world of public education. Nixon's candidacy embodies two phenomena of American politics in recent times. The first, the wave of women who want to stand for elections pushed by a feminist gale that began after the victory of Donald Trump and was consolidated this fall on the back of the #MeToo protest against harassment.
The second phenomenon is the remarkable number of lesbians who have been elected by voters recently and without much noise. For example, Dawn Adams, who at the end of 2017 snatched a Republican seat in the General Assembly of Virginia, or Jenny Durkan, who became the first LGBT woman - and a woman - to reach the mayoralty of Seattle. And Danica Roem, in Virginia, in the fall was the first transgender elected to a legislative position in the US.
Unfortunately for Nixon, the race for the post of governor of New York is not just about sex, or gender. There are other walls for Cynthia Nixon. If there is a Goliath, that is Andrew Cuomo, who is currently sweeping the polls. "We live in the most unequal state in the whole country, where there is incredible wealth and extreme poverty," she said in the video launching her candidacy. The defense of the public school, the legalization of marijuana and the promotion of social protection measures are the backbone of its program, very connected with the voters who once embraced Bernie Sanders, and who were children when “Sex and the City” was released. Will you vote her?