Addressing thousands of progressives, Cynthia makes the case for progressive primary challenges to uproot the broken Democratic establishment

NEW ORLEANS, LA — Democratic candidate for governor Cynthia Nixon today delivered a keynote address at Netroots 2018 in front of thousands of progressives from across the country. She spoke on the need for competitive primary challenges in New York and across the country to “uproot the broken establishment and usher in a new generation of leadership” and “transform the Democratic Party into a vehicle for all working people, not just corporations and Wall Street.”

Cynthia cited the major victories of her primary challenge including Governor Cuomo’s abrupt jump to the left on policy since she entered the race: his recent support of legalizing marijuana despite calling it a “gateway drug” just a year ago; backing away from teacher evaluations after publicly feuding with the teachers union; and reversing his positions on a plastic bag tax and fossil fuel pipeline construction.

“That is the power of primaries. That is what happens when we hold Democrats accountable,” Cynthia said.

Cynthia was recently endorsed by Indivisible, the largest anti-Trump civic group in the country, and the Democratic Socialists of America. Cynthia has also been endorsed by Our Revolution, Working Families Party Democracy for America, Progressive Change Campaign Committee, Daily Kos, and many other progressive organizations.

Cynthia’s full remarks as prepared below:

I’m Cynthia Nixon and I’m running for governor of New York State.

Let me be more specific — I’m running in the Democratic primary for governor of New York State.  

The Democratic establishment doesn’t like primaries. They think challenging incumbents hurts the party. I disagree. I think that centrist corporate Democrats hurt the party. And I think they need to be held accountable. And a primary is one of the best ways to do that.

We are witnessing an incredible moment for the progressive movement right now. People are rejecting the status quo and establishment Democrats, and a party leadership that is so often whiter, wealthier, and more male than the party base.

That’s why thousands of progressives all over America are running for office this year, many of us women, and many of us for the first time. Because we’ve realized that if we want things to finally change, we’ll need to step up and do it ourselves.

The movement we’re building in this country isn’t just about the next election. It’s about offering a vision of the way things could work — if only we had the leadership and the political courage to make it a reality.

It can’t just be business as usual anymore. We have to turn the system upside down. We have to uproot the broken establishment and usher in a new generation of leadership. We have to transform the Democratic Party into a vehicle for all working people, not just corporations and Wall Street.

I’m tired of having a Democratic establishment that meddles in primaries and picks candidates based on nothing more than fundraising from big donors. I’m tired of a Democratic establishment that warns candidates not to run on single payer healthcare, and tells us to stop talking about abolishing ICE because it doesn’t poll well.

The same Democratic establishment that once told us not to talk about civil rights, or same-sex marriage, or abortion, or a $15 minimum wage.

The same Democratic establishment that’s now saying we can’t win with candidates like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, because she’s just too far to the left.

Please. I don’t know if they’ve forgotten what happened in 2016, but I haven’t. A lack of moderation was not the problem. We tried it their way — and we lost.

To a racist extremist.

If Democrats are going to win this year, it’s not enough to just be better than Donald Trump. We can’t just give people something to vote against; we need to give them something to show up and vote FOR.  

And that’s exactly what I’m doing. I’m running for governor on a platform of passing single-payer health care; ending the school-to-prison pipeline; and providing free college tuition to New Yorkers who can’t afford it.

I’m running for governor to end voter suppression; to pass universal rent control; and to protect immigrants from deportation and support the movement to abolish ICE once and for all.

I’m running to end our addiction to fossil fuels and usher in a Green New Deal; to strengthen reproductive rights; and to end mass incarceration, starting with legalizing marijuana and abolishing cash bail.

I am proud to be one of a small but growing number of candidates to identify as a democratic socialist. I hadn’t called myself a democratic socialist before, but I realized that my values and what I’m fighting for are directly aligned with that movement.

So if being a democratic socialist means believing that health care, housing, and education should be a basic human right, then I’m a democratic socialist. If it means standing up against inequality in all its forms and taking action to equalize wealth and power in our society, then I’m a democratic socialist.

The establishment is terrified of that word — socialism. But if we learned one thing from the Obama years, it’s that Republicans are going to call us socialists no matter what we do. We might as well give them the real thing!

When I got in this race, pundits said that Governor Cuomo was too powerful, that he had too much money, that Albany was never going to change.

But four months into this race, just look at what we’ve already won.

For seven and a half years, Cuomo said he had no power to disband the IDC, the rogue corporate Democrats who vote with the New York State Senate Republicans to block progressive legislation. Then, two weeks into our campaign, he disbanded them. Why? Because our movement stood up, fought back and won.

On criminal justice reform, just last year Governor Cuomo opposed marijuana legalization and labeled it a “gateway drug.” Now, after our campaign called it out as a racial justice issue and championed full legalization, lo and behold his Department of Health did too. Why? Because our movement stood up, fought back and won.

On education, for years Cuomo declared war on New York’s public school teachers, and supported tying teacher evaluations to scores on student exams. One month into our campaign, Cuomo reversed himself and decided to support ending teacher evaluations based on test scores. Because our movement stood up, fought back, and won.

On climate, Cuomo oversaw the development of a fracked gas pipeline that would devastate a community’s water and health. But the same day we released our climate justice platform, he halted the construction of the pipeline. He’s reversed his position on the plastic bag tax, and suddenly backed off plans to store gas in caverns near Seneca Lake. Because our movement stood up, fought back and won.

That is the power of primaries. That is what happens when we hold Democrats accountable.

These are real victories – and none of them would have been possible without the support of grassroots groups like the Working Families Party, which I have stood with and fought with for better schools 17 years.

But even these very real victories only go so far. Which is why we need a change. Which is why I’m running.

Because at the end of the day, we have a governor who just doesn’t believe in progressive values and flat out doesn’t support fellow Democrats.

If you haven’t been following New York state politics, that might sound like an exaggeration. It’s not. Apart from encouraging a breakaway group of Democratic State Senators to vote with the Republicans, giving Republicans control despite being in the minority, apart from his allowing the Republican State Senators to gerrymander their own districts, Andrew Cuomo is ALSO running on the Independence Party ballot line, a line he’s sharing with mostly Republican candidates — including our top four Congressional targets in the state.

By headlining their ballot line, he will be single-handedly delivering tens of thousands of votes to vulnerable Republican incumbents. Because Andrew Cuomo wants every possible vote for himself, and he doesn’t care if it helps Republicans keep control of Congress.

That is why we in the progressive movement have to get involved in primaries. Primaries are where we get to stand up to these establishment, corporate Democrats and decide what kind of Democratic Party we actually want.

This is not a time to settle for the way things are. This is a time to fight.

This year, progressives want power, not concessions. And if we want real change, we don’t just need to elect MORE Democrats – we need to elect BETTER Democrats.

And on September 13, I am calling on you, all of you, to join us, join this movement, and help us bring real progressive change to NY State.

Thank you.