On June 25, the day before ten-term incumbent Rep. Joe Crowley was unexpectedly defeated, Cynthia Nixon endorsed his challenger Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, saying, “We are both insurgent progressives.” Late last week, Nixon, who is challenging Andrew Cuomo from the left to become governor of New York — made an even more dramatic announcement: she is a democratic socialist.

There are plenty of reasons for leftists to be skeptical of Nixon’s sudden embrace of socialism, which came mere hours before a presentation to members of the New York City chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) seeking their endorsement. While this is Nixon’s first time running for political office, she has been in public life for over a decade and has until now steered clear of criticizing capitalism.

In May 2015, during the early stages of the Democratic presidential primary, she told Bloomberg, “I’m definitely a Hillary person.” And just this past March, Nixon came under fire from many in the labor movement and the Left for criticizing the New York transit workers’ union’s deals with New York State.