In March, Cynthia Nixon announced that she was running for governor of New York against Andrew Cuomo, and reactions ranged from the incredulous to the insulting.

Most memorably, former New York City council speaker Christine Quinn labelled her “an unqualified lesbian”, which was intended to be derogatory. Nixon, however, enthusiastically embraced the moniker. Indeed, she’s even selling “Unqualified Lesbian” merchandise to help fund her campaign.



While Nixon’s queer credentials may not impress Quinn very much, the former Sex and the City actor has proved to have quite the knack for sapphic slogans. At Tuesday’s legislative correspondents association dinner in Albany, Nixon gave a speech where she jokingly declared that her new campaign message was “Vote for the homo, not for the Cuomo.”

Nixon quipped: “Andrew Cuomo is known for dirty politics but I have to give credit where it’s due. His history of cutthroat campaigns helped inspire my campaign’s new slogan.”

Nixon’s speech at the annual legislative correspondents association dinner.

Nixon was referring to Mario Cuomo, father of the governor of New York, who made an unsuccessful 1977 run for mayor of New York against Ed Koch. During the race, homophobic posters appeared on city streets urging New Yorkers to “Vote for Cuomo, not the homo.” Koch was widely rumoured to be gay, although he never identified as such.

Unsurprisingly, no one took credit for these posters. However, it has long been suspected that Andrew Cuomo, who was involved with his father’s campaign, was behind them. Cuomo, of course, denies this. But in a 2009 video interview with the New York Times, Koch made clear that he held the Cuomos responsible.

While Nixon may have been joking about her “new campaign slogan”, it wouldn’t be surprising if “Vote for the homo, not for the Cuomo” made its way onto official campaign merchandise soon. As political slogans go, it’s got it all: a catchy rhyme, a snarky jab and a clear call to action. It’s certainly better than a lot of slogans other political-hopefuls have come up with.

In honour of Nixon’s sloganeering, here are what may be the best, worst, and weirdest taglines in American political history.

The good: ‘It’s the economy, stupid’

The fact that the phrase Bill Clinton used for his 1992 presidential campaign against George HW Bush is still in the vernacular says a lot. While the line was initially intended only as an internal messaging, it basically became Clinton’s brand. Until, of course, Clinton became better associated with the phrase “I did not have sexual relations with that woman.”

Sadly, Jeb didn’t fix it. Photograph: Brian Blanco/Getty Images

The bad: ‘Jeb Can Fix It’

Jeb Bush is probably still trying to wipe his spectacularly unsuccessful bid to be the Republican presidential candidate from his mind. It didn’t exactly go very well and his bizarre attempts at branding himself didn’t help. The Bush campaign’s first attempt at a slogan was simply “Jeb!” Which sort of sounded like a musical. One you definitely wouldn’t want to see.



So the Bush camp tried again and came up with the equally awful “Jeb Can Fix It” – which the internet immediately turned into a meme. They say there’s no such thing as bad publicity but in Jeb’s case I’m not sure that is true.

Al smith button Photograph: Heritage Auctions

The weird: ‘Vote for Al Smith and make your wet dreams come true’

Alfred Smith, who was elected governor of New York four times, ran for the presidency in 1928. One of the big platforms that he ran on was being anti-prohibition; he was a so-called “wet” candidate.

As such, he came up with the memorable phrase: “Vote for Al Smith and make your wet dreams come true” which he printed on buttons.

Quite the fashion statement.