KINGSTON – Gubernatorial
candidate Cynthia Nixon rallied with supporters in Midtown Kingston Sunday
afternoon, joined by attorney general candidate Zephyr Teachout. The two
left-leaning progressives are both in a primary Thursday, September 13th,
against more centrist opponents for the Democratic Party nomination.
Battle of the bullhorns: Nixon, left, and Teachout
“I am tired of California getting all the glory; we need to make New York the capital of The Resistance,” Nixon told the cheering crowd of 75 volunteers, organized by Citizen Action of the Hudson Valley for door-to-door canvassing. “We need to oppose [U.S. President] Donald Trump, not just with rhetoric; we need to do it with policy. We need to pass the New York Dream Act here. We need to pass the Liberty Act, to stop law enforcement from cooperating with ICE. We need to offer driver’s licenses to all our undocumented people. I will do so on my first day in office, by executive order.”
Nixon also said the state needs to end cash bail, and legalize marijuana,
“because first and foremost, it is a racial justice issue,”
Nixon added. She also vowed to establish statewide universal health care.
Nixon noted that when Teachout ran against incumbent Andrew Cuomo for Governor in the 2014 Democratic Primary, she received 34 percent of the vote, which only drew 600,000 participants in total. This year, she observed, there are nearly 600,000 newly registered Democrats.
Should Nixon beat Cuomo in the primary, she would face Republican Marcus Molinaro, the current Dutchess County executive, for the state’s top job in November. If Nixon loses the primary, she still has the Working Families Party nomination to run as a spoiler.
Teachout, who is in a four-way primary for attorney general, said that the powerful Real Estate Board of New York is supporting all three of her primary opponents. “In fact, they came out to say just how much they don’t like me; that’s code for just how scared they are of me,” Teachout said.
“I am ready to take on big pharma, because I don’t take money from big pharma. I am ready to take on the fossil fuel industry, because I don’t take fossil fuel money. I am ready to take on big cable, because I don’t take big cable money.”
Teachout faces fellow Democrats Sean Patrick Maloney, Letitia James, and Leecia Eve, in the Sept. 13 primary. The Republican AG candidate is Keith Wofford.
Incumbent Democrat Eric Schneiderman, elected in 2010, resigned last May, amidst a domestic abuse scandal.
Teachout was a congressional candidate in 2016 and lost to Republican John Faso. Democrat Antonio Delgado faces Faso in November.
