New York primary debate: Cuomo and Nixon trade barbs as they pledge to lead the resistance against Donald Trump

The candidates are meeting just once on a debate stage before the state's primary in September

Nixon and Cuomo are only conducting one debate before the September primary (Reuters)

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and his insurgent progressive rival, actress and activist Cynthia Nixon, have met for the first and only time on a debate stage in what became a heated battle about who should lead one of the most powerful states standing up to President Donald Trump.

In the debate over the soul of the New York Democratic Party, the president was evoked frequently as a bogeyman threatening the very fabric of the United States, as the two pitched their ideas on immigration, paid family leave, and how to fix the state’s crumbling infrastructure, as well as a myriad of other issues.

Ms Nixon, from the start, sought to push for progressive policies that have been increasingly popular in mainstream politics since Mr Trump’s election, and described Mr Cuomo’s near eight year stewardship of the state as one filled with corruption and scandal – and accused him of dropping the ball.

“I’m not an Albany insider like Governor Cuomo, but I think that experience doesn’t mean much if you’re not actually good at governing,” Ms Nixon said when asked why voters should trust her as governor, before attacking her opponent for overseeing the crumbling New York City subway system, and for taking major donations from corporations for his campaigns.

Mr Cuomo, in response, took jabs at Ms Nixon’s inexperience, describing himself as the only candidate with the knowledge and background to be trusted with steering the nearly $170bn (£130bn) ship in Albany. If Ms Nixon were trying to nail Mr Cuomo as a corrupt status quo, he attempted to frame the choice before Americans as one of who would best stand up to the president.

“My job as governor is to protect New Yorkers – whether it’s from terrorism or climate change or mother nature, but one of the largest threats today is President Trump,” Mr Cuomo said.

Since Ms Nixon started her long-shot bid for governorship, the race has attracted national attention as Democrats in the United States have sensed a wave of progressive sentiment, leading to electoral upsets for progressive candidates and to speculation that Ms Nixon may be elected.

That progressive wave has already led to some major upsets in this year’s Democratic primaries, including the election of New York’s Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who shocked a top incumbent after running a robust campaign promising single-payer healthcare and the abolition of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the agency responsible for the US’s immigration system that has been seen as increasingly harsh in its approach to undocumented immigrants.

While progressives in the state have expressed hope that Ms Nixon could pull off a similar upset, the chances remain slim. Although the very fact Mr Cuomo accepted the debate offer – and has appeared to shift left with his policies since Ms Nixon entered the campaign – suggests that the race may be closer than expected.

Of the polling done in the state thus far, all conducted in July, Mr Cuomo holds a healthy lead over Ms Nixon. Of those, the most recent poll showed that the former Sex in the City actress trailed Mr Cuomo by 31 points in the Democratic primary in the state.

The candidates clearly knew that the singular debate of the primary season was of huge intrigue in the state, and even the country, and quickly digressed into heated exchanges in which they called each other liars and accused one another of corruption or unethical behaviour. At one point, Mr Cuomo repeatedly asked Ms Nixon if she was “a corporation”, referring to her private business, to which she responded “I am a person”.

In one particularly heated exchange, Mr Cuomo grew frustrated with Ms Nixon’s repeated interruptions while she was speaking, and asked her to stop. “Can you stop interrupting?” he said. “Can you stop lying?” she shot back. “As soon as you do,” he returned.

New Yorkers will vote in their primary on 13 September.