Cynthia Nixon requested that the Hofstra University debate hall's thermostat be changed to a mild 76 degrees for her debate against Gov. Cuomo

Cynthia Nixon Claims Cold Rooms Are 'Notoriously Sexist,' Asks for Cuomo Debate to Be 76 Degrees

Cynthia Nixon is literally turning up the heat for her debate against Andrew Cuomo.

One day before her debate against New York Gov. Cuomo at Hofstra University in Long Island, New York, on Wednesday evening, Democratic gubernatorial challenger Nixon requested the debate hall’s thermostat be changed to a mild 76 degrees.

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Rebecca Katz, a top strategist for the Nixon campaign, asked news station WCBS-TV, the outlet hosting the debate, adjust the temperature in the debate hall, according to an email obtained by the New York Times.

In the email, Katz argued that work environments are “notoriously sexist when it comes to temperature, so we just want to make sure we’re all on the same page here.”

Cuomo is well-known for wanting his public appearances to be made in chilled rooms. (In 2011, an assemblyman in attendance at a Cuomo speaking engagement likened the venue to a “meat locker.”)

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However, Katz said she had yet to hear back from WCBS-TV. According to the Times, 76 degrees was “just an opening offer to ensure the temperatures were not uncomfortably cold.”

After the debate was announced, Katz released a statement on Nixon’s campaign website that read: “CBS management has acknowledged that the only way to get Governor Cuomo to show up is by giving him everything he wants. We weren’t even given a seat at the table.”

Another Nixon adviser supported the temperature change.

L. Joy Williams, a senior adviser to the Nixon campaign, tweeted: “Maybe you say 76 degrees and get 65 degrees instead of freezing at 50.”

Meanwhile, Cuomo’s campaign said it had not made any temperature-related requests.

“Unlike Cynthia Nixon, the governor has more important things to focus on than the temperature of a room,” Lis Smith, a spokeswoman for Cuomo, said in a statement obtained by CNN.

In the past few years, researchers have determined that women are in overly air-conditioned workplaces.