Sex and the City star Cynthia Nixon splits New York voters

New Yorkers vote in a gubernatorial primary between incumbent Mario Cuomo and Sex and the City star Cynthia Nixon.

Cynthia Nixon on the hustings with fellow non-establishment Democrat candidate Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in New York yesterday. Picture: AP

Until quite recently, Cynthia Nixon was best known as the spiky red-headed companion of Carrie Bradshaw in Sex and the City. But over the past six months, New Yorkers have watched with amazement as the actress auditioned for a drearier but more substantive role.

She wanted to be their governor. In the process, she would have to explain how she would surmount the tangled politics of the state capital and what she would do for the third-largest economy in the US. She would also be called to account for her idiosyncratic taste in bagels, and her support for a British tea shop frequented by her former co-star Sarah Jessica Parker.

Ms Nixon has no experience in elected office — it was not even clear that she had the full support of all her co-stars on Sex and the City — and yet she has dared to challenge Andrew Cuomo, a two-term incumbent, whose father, Mario, had served in the same governor’s mansion and was a revered figure in Democratic politics.

Mr Cuomo would raise more than $US30 million ($41.7m); he is regarded as a canny and combative political operator. No one else would challenge him. Only Ms Nixon stepped forward to take him on for the Democratic nomination, promising to take no donations from corporations. It was true she had once played a feisty character on television but it seemed unlikely she had the wherewithal to oust Mr Cuomo.

Yet in the final days of the campaign, which comes to a head today, Mr Cuomo has looked nervous.

He is fighting to stem the damage of a flyer that falsely implied she was anti-Semitic (Ms Nixon attends synagogue, her children are Jewish), and the embarrassment of a bridge that he opened, in time for the primary, having to be closed again for safety reasons.

He is also spending a reported $US500,000 a day on advertising.

As registered Democrats voted last night, Ms Nixon remains far behind in the polls, but hopeful.

She is championing a version of universal healthcare, more funding for schools and a fix for New York’s dire underground system.

She was still being questioned over a bagel controversy. At the legendary Broadway emporium Zabar’s, Ms Nixon had been seen ordering a cinnamon raisin bagel with smoked salmon and capers. People were appalled: it was like putting a haddock on a cupcake. Ms Nixon held her ground. “This is my go-to bagel,” she said.

Mr Cuomo has tried to cast her as a member of the New York elite who asked Mayor Bill de Blasio for favours, including stopping aircraft flying over a Central Park performance of King Lear.

Mr Cuomo, who enjoys a fractious relationship with the mayor, also claimed Ms Nixon had used her influence to aid Tea & Sympathy, a West Village institution frequented by Parker that was facing burdensome demands from a new landlord.

Nicky Perry, its owner, said Parker had sought to help, and Ms Nixon was the channel through which a plea was made, though she doubted it counted as a favour for big business.

“I’m not exactly the 1 per cent,” Ms Perry said.

The Times