The 51-year-old actress announced her candidacy with a two-minute campaign video posted on her Twitter account that showed her at home with her wife and children, riding the subway, dropping her young child off at school and speaking at political events.
Nixon is throwing her hat into the ring alongside incumbent Democratic governor Andrew Cuomo, who is seeking a third term, said she was "sick of politicians who care more about headlines and power than they do about us."
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The actress -- born and raised in New York where she grew up with her mother in what she called "a one-bedroom, fifth-floor walk-up" -- is running on a progressive platform, calling herself a "proud" public school parent campaigning for greater equality.
"Our leaders are letting us down. We are now the most unequal state in the entire country with both incredible wealth and extreme poverty. Half the kids in our upstate cities live below the poverty line. How did we let this happen?" she said on the video.
"I love New York. I've never wanted to live anywhere else but something has to change. We want our government to work again -- on health care, ending mass incarceration, fixing our broken subway.
"I'm Cynthia Nixon. I'm a New Yorker and together we can win this fight."
She is best known for her role alongside Sarah Jessica Parker and Kim Cattrall on the wildly successful television comedy "Sex and the City," which aired on HBO from 1998-2004, and spawned two spin-off movies.
