NEW YORK CITY – Gov. Andrew Cuomo, fresh off a solid win in the 2018 Democrat Primary, again denied he is going to run for President, and credited his win on real progress, not “abstract, theoretical solutions.”
Cuomo, who beat Cynthia Nixon by more than 460,000 votes, said New York State leads the way in progressive action.
“A progressive Democrat, a Democrat in New York State, these are not ivory tower academics,” Cuomo said. “These are hard-working men and women. They’re middle class. They don’t need abstract, theoretical solutions. They need real solutions.”
“New York State is the progressive capital of the United States of America.”
He listed several actions which he said proves his point. He said the $15 minimum wage, the “best family paid leave program in America” and being the first big state to pass marriage equality all show that New Yorker want action.
“We have provided real life progressive solutions. We provided progress and that’s the message from last night, to me,” Cuomo said.
Cuomo, who maintains he is not seeking the presidency, took aim at President Donald Trump during his comments, saying Trump is what will unite Democrats across the state.
“The fear of Trump, the anger at Trump, what Trump’s policies will do to them in their lives,” will unite the party.
Cuomo predicted the “sweeping” results from the primary will expand into the general election.
“In November, I will wager you today, you’re going to see that same dynamic all across the spectrum,” Cuomo said. “All these Trump attacks are not limited to Democrats. It’s all New Yorkers.”
He blast Trump’s policies at the opposite of what New York residents think.
“His policies are an affront to all New Yorkers, Democrats, Republicans, all across the board and that’s what November is going to be all about,” Cuomo said.
He said taxpayers are sick of government inaction and a lack of results, explaining to the assembled press what he thinks being a progressive means.
“What it means to be a progressive is to do progressive things,” he said.
Asked about an apparent shift among Democrats in the face of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s upset victory in June over incumbent, Joseph Crowley, the fourth-ranking Democrat in the House of Representatives, Cuomo seemed to toss her win aside as a political movement in the state.
“I won the Ocasio district by like 36 percent,” Cuomo said. “I’m not a Socialist. I’m not 25 years old, I may look it. I’m not a newcomer. I may act like it. They (voters) wanted someone to stand up to Trump and say ‘Go to heck.”
He said the primary election numbers are reality and not “some twitterspehere dialogue.”
Asked about a possible presidential bid, Cuomo said he is running for Governor of New York, but that Trump’s agenda is “repugnant to everything we stand for as New Yorkers.”
“New York, said with New York arrogance, is not just another state,” he said, calling the state the birth place of women’s suffrage, the ACLU and other progressive measures.
