Cynthia Nixon: Cuomo has ‘governed like a Republican’ since taking office

Democratic primary challenger Cynthia Nixon said Thursday that Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D-N.Y.) has “governed like a Republican” since taking office.

“I did vote for Andrew Cuomo eight years ago because I remembered his dad fondly and because I thought he was a Democrat, but since he’s taken office he’s governed like a Republican,” Nixon told CNN Thursday when asked why she opposed a governor who had legalized same-sex marriage and increased the minimum wage to $15.

“You mentioned the $15 minimum wage, that is something that Governor Cuomo fought and fought and fought tooth and nail until the unions backed him into a corner and he finally flipped,” Nixon said.

She told CNN that Cuomo opposed a minimum wage hike to $13 a few months before he came to embrace a $15 minimum wage.

“He was proposing $10.50,” Nixon said. “This is the perfect example of the kind of thing that he enacts and claims ownership of, but actually he was pushed to and was dragged kicking and screaming all the way.”

{mosads} Nixon also pointed to Cuomo’s behavior around education, which she said is the “first and foremost” reason she is in the race against Cuomo.

“New York schools are the second most unequally funded in the entire country,” Nixon told CNN, saying that the high needs, low income school districts are owed $4.2 billion.

“And this is money that any Democratic governor should obey the command of the highest court in New York and invest this money and governor Cuomo refuses to even acknowledge it, much less invest it,” Nixon said.

“This is one of the key reasons that I’m in this race,” she continued. “But honestly there are so many issues on which New York could be enacting real progressive change but we have rhetoric.”

Nixon is mounting a long shot campaign to topple Cuomo in the Democratic gubernatorial primary in New York. A self-espoused socialist, Nixon trails Cuomo in every public poll, according to the Washington Post.

Cuomo is seeking a third term as governor of New York.