The celebrification of American politics is in full swing, with speculation still humming that Oprah Winfrey could challenge President Trump in 2020. At first blush, “Sex and the City” star Cynthia Nixon’s decision to challenge Gov. Andrew Cuomo in the Democratic gubernatorial primary might appear to belong to this trend.

But to write Nixon off as just another Trump-like star attempting to invade politics to simply expand her name and fame would be a grave mistake by Cuomo and allies. Nixon is for real.

Nixon, a native New Yorker, put Cuomo on notice with a slick, well-produced introductory video putting her firmly in the Bernie Sanders wing of the party — among whom Cuomo is weakest: “Our leaders are letting us down. We are now the most unequal state in the entire country. With both incredible wealth and extreme poverty.”

She also knows how to work the new-media landscape: When Cuomo ally Christine Quinn called Nixon an “unqualified lesbian,” Nixon fired back on Twitter: “She was technically right. I don’t have my certificate from the Department of Lesbian Affairs, but in my defense, there is a lot of paperwork involved.”

Of course, 2016 showed the political power of mastering Twitter. But beyond that, Nixon’s response displayed a nimbleness and self-deprecating sense of humor that the perpetually dour Cuomo simply can’t match.

But Nixon is not alone with this message. She has also enlisted a slew of Mayor Bill de Blasio’s stalwarts including Zephyr Teachout, whose failed bid to unseat Cuomo in 2014 rattled the governor. Since then, the Democratic Party has been pulled further left, leaving the dispositionally centrist Cuomo at a distinct disadvantage and scrambling to reshape his image as a progressive.

Suddenly Cuomo found himself lying on the ground with gun control activists participating in a die-in as a response to the Florida high school shooting. After Nixon announced her candidacy, Cuomo visited New York City public housing — beset by scandal and mismanagement and dogging de Blasio’s second term — for the first time since Hurricane Sandy.

At Nixon’s first presser as an official candidate, she declared, “If Washington is a swamp, Albany is a cesspool,” an apparent reference to Joseph Percoco, Cuomo’s close aide and confidant who was convicted on federal charges of fraud and bribery.

And in an early stroke of campaign savvy, Nixon traveled to her own presser by subway — a presser she was late for, thanks to the complete deterioration of the state-run transit system.

The condition of the subway, in fact, could make Nixon threatening even as a single-issue candidate (though she is running on more than transit). Its potency comes not only from how much it affects voters but also as a skillful way to flip the script and neutralize what could’ve been Nixon’s greatest disadvantage: In this narrative, the Hollywood star is a woman of the people and the Queens machine pol is the out-of-touch dilettante.

As both New York City’s mayor and New York state’s governor eye the White House in 2020, Nixon can position herself as the affable native simply interested in getting the trains to run on time again.

Where Nixon would need to solidify a voting base is outside the Big Apple. A Siena poll conducted March 16 found Cuomo still favored over Nixon by about 66 percent to 19 percent.

Since then, Nixon has enjoyed a honeymoon in progressive media circles, with glowing profiles in the likes of the Daily Beast and the New Republic. What she has to do to chop away at Cuomo’s lead is get out of New York City and prove that she isn’t just the cosmopolitan candidate for the Upper West Side like her “Sex and the City” character, Miranda Hobbes. (A New York Times writeup even tried to say “Miranda” could hurt her populist credibility. It’s a silly line of attack, but one she’ll face.)

Make no mistake, Cuomo is in for the fight of his electoral life. As the disenchantment with establishment cronyism grows, so will the call for political outsiders. And as the bad taste of Hillary Clinton’s defeat lingers on the minds of Cuomo allies and New York voters, they will wonder if the path Trump himself traveled can be successful for them as well. Nixon certainly already has the name, it’s just a question of whether she can play at this level.

She’s off to a good start.

Stephen L. Miller lives in New York and writes about politics and culture.