In his firmest denial of presidential ambitions yet, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said on Wednesday that, if re-elected this year, he would finish a full third term as New York’s governor — or die trying.



“The only caveat is if God strikes me dead,” Mr. Cuomo said during Wednesday night’s debate with Cynthia Nixon.

Mr. Cuomo, as a 60-year-old two-term governor of a major state, has long been considered a possible contender for national office. And in recent months, as he has increasingly redirected his administration to stand in opposition to President Trump’s agenda in Washington, that talk has only grown.

Earlier in August, Mr. Cuomo announced opening his first federal political action committee, and he engaged in a war of words with Mr. Trump after he had declared that America “was never that great.”