Cuomo-Nixon Debate: Six TakeawaysCuomo-Nixon Debate: Six Takeaways

He didn’t snap. She didn’t whiff.

The first and only debate between Cynthia Nixon and Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo was fierce from the opening bell, with sniping, cross-talk and clear differences on substantive policy.

But it was no knockout blow for either candidate, which was perhaps more damaging to the chances of Ms. Nixon, whose campaign has trailed in the polls. Her team was banking that the exposure of a statewide broadcast debate — even on a quiet late summer Wednesday that Mr. Cuomo chose — could help ignite her insurgent challenge.

She tried to lure Mr. Cuomo into a meme-able moment of “mansplaining” and while he, more than once, looked down on her preparedness for the job (“This is real life,” he said dismissively), he didn’t say anything nearly as memorable as his quip earlier this month that America “was never that great.”