Nixon and Williams: Side by Side on the Ballot, to Mutual Benefit

NEW YORK — During a recent canvass in Brooklyn, volunteers on Cynthia Nixon’s campaign for governor encountered an unexpected situation: Some voters were far less familiar with Nixon than with her running mate, Jumaane Williams.

Leading with Williams’ name, rather than Nixon’s, they found, was a highly effective approach.

In the speculation over whether New York’s Democratic primary next week will replicate other upsets around the country, much attention has focused on Nixon’s challenge to Gov. Andrew Cuomo. But while polls show Nixon lagging more than 30 points behind Cuomo, Williams, a long-serving city councilman from Flatbush, trails his opponent, Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul, by only 9. He leads Hochul among city residents and black voters.

There is a chance that Williams could prevail in the Sept. 13 Democratic primary while Nixon falls, potentially pairing Cuomo with his unpreferred candidate in November. Under New York election law, the governor and lieutenant governor run as separate entities on the primary ballot, becoming a ticket only in the general election.

Some groups that endorsed Williams, such as the Amsterdam News, which is owned by African-Americans, also picked Cuomo over Nixon; likewise, some that backed Nixon snubbed Williams.

Allies of the governor, who have dismissed Nixon’s candidacy, have made plain that they are worried about Williams. In a fundraising email for Hochul, Judith Hope, a former chairwoman of the state Democratic Party, wrote that Hochul was “seriously threatened” by Williams, calling the situation a “political emergency.”

As political roles go, the one of lieutenant governor, at least on election ballots, is typically an unglamorous, formulaic one. As running mates, they help would-be governors check off demographic boxes and shore up their weaknesses, but otherwise occupy little limelight of their own.

But when it comes to the partnership between Nixon and Williams, that formula may be upended. In parts of the state — especially in Brooklyn, where Nixon is expected to struggle given Cuomo’s adamantine ties to the black community — Williams is the better-known quantity.

That the two would appeal to different groups is perhaps unsurprising. One is a wealthy actress who entered politics through public school advocacy and would be the state’s first female or openly gay governor; the other is a son of Caribbean immigrants known for his efforts to end unfair policing, and whose opponent has attacked him for his debts — and his previously stated private opposition to same-sex marriage.

In a possible nod to their divergent backgrounds, they have not always jumped to yoke their campaigns together. Although both won the Working Families Party’s nomination in May, they did not endorse each other until July. Although each has now referred to the other as a running mate, their teams emphasized at first that they were running separate campaigns and that Williams had declared his candidacy first.

“Cynthia and Jumaane come from different worlds, but they sat down together, learned from one another and built a shared vision for the New York we need,” said Bill Lipton, the state director of the Working Families Party.

What remains to be seen is how the convergence of those backgrounds plays out.

It could make them a potent force that collectively sweeps up a wide swath of diverse voters, said Tamika Mallory, a leader of the national Women’s March and a supporter of Williams.

“I think that he will help her to gain attention that she wouldn’t necessarily have had without him,” Mallory said. “While her message may be progressive, at the same time, there is no real track record in this arena that people can identify with in the same way that they can with Jumaane.”

But the partnership could also be deployed as a wedge. At a joint appearance by Nixon and Williams in Crown Heights, a handful of protesters toted signs calling Nixon hypocritical for supporting Williams, because of his past comments opposing abortion. Hochul’s campaign has said the same. (Williams has told voters that he supports abortion rights and pro-LGBT policies.)

The Nixon and Williams campaigns have dismissed the criticism, adding that Hochul could likewise be a vulnerability for Cuomo given her previous A rating from the National Rifle Association. A spokesman for Hochul’s campaign said that the governor and Hochul had discussed her support for gun safety before she joined his ticket in 2014.

After a recent joint appearance in Harlem, Nixon and Williams said they had had three meetings where they discussed his position on abortion and same-sex marriage, in which they “unpeeled” each issue.

“You want to be sure you understand where a person is coming from, and where they were before and where they are now,” Nixon said.

Nixon said Williams explained how he learned, through his fight against the Police Department’s stop-and-frisk policy, about the discrimination that minority transgender women say they face when dealing with the police, and how that informed his support for the LGBT movement.

For his part, Williams said he wanted to ensure that Nixon’s concerns did not end with education activism.

“There are constituencies that know me a little better,” Williams said, “whether it’s in the black community, the Caribbean community, people who are interested in policing work, people interested in affordable housing work.”

But he also acknowledged that Nixon is, on balance, the better-known figure.

“I think a lot of people know her: women, people who love ‘Sex and the City’ and people who have done a lot more work on education policy,” Williams said. “She might be able to introduce me in some of the more affluent areas. That’s a pretty good combo.” As the two candidates have increased their joint appearances before the primary, the differences in their appeals have been on clear display.

At the appearance in Harlem, Nixon and Williams visited The Brotherhood-Sister Sol, a youth development organization, to hear a group of black and Latino teenagers discuss their ideas for improving public schools.

Williams wore a T-shirt and a blazer with a “Stay Woke” button pinned to the lapel. Nixon wore a button-down shirt and slacks.

Responding to the teenagers’ ideas, Nixon outlined her own education platform and described her advocacy on education funding, which was inspired by cuts to her oldest child’s Upper West Side school.

Williams then took his turn. “That was pretty dope just to hear all of the ideas,” he said, before describing his experience as a student in the city’s public schools. “My nickname was promotion-in-doubt,” Williams joked.

Khary Lazarre-White, the executive director and a founder of The Brotherhood-Sister Sol, said he knew Williams from their community organizing days but was meeting Nixon for the first time.

“Jumaane has a vibe where he could be their brother or father at this point.” Lazarre-White said.

A similar scene played out at a picnic in Brooklyn last month, where Williams, upon arrival, jumped into an ongoing dance party, not even bothering to shed his backpack. Nixon, when she arrived a few minutes later, was immediately swarmed by people clamoring for a photograph.

“Jumaane did a very credible electric slide, and Cynthia had very compelling conversations,” said Brad Lander, a councilman from Brooklyn who attended the event.

But Lander added that there was little difference in the reception that Williams and Nixon received from the 100 or so picnic attendees.

“She was treated more like a celebrity, but a decent number of people there knew Jumaane. They both had star power in that setting,” Lander said. “People wanted to take selfies with both of them.”