Chris Cox, surprise candidate for Congress and 31-year-old grandson of Richard Nixon, has more than political inexperience and a dubious legacy to worry about — it’s his recent engagement to 20-year-old New York heir ess Andrea Catsimatidis, whom he met when she was just 17, that has scan dalized Long Island’s elite.
“Everyone’s snickering behind their back,” said one high-ranking GOP leader from eastern Long Island, where Cox is running as a Republican.
“She’s a kid. He brings her to these very staid Republican events and she’s in a miniskirt. It’s the political equivalent of ‘The Addams Family.’ ”
Catsimatidis is the daughter of bil lionaire political power broker John Cat simatidis, who expressed concern about the engagement to The Post’s Cindy Adams a month ago.
“I’m shell-shocked,” he said. When asked if Cox had any money, he replied, “I don’t know. I only know that Andrea has enough for both of them.”
Supermarket mogul Catsimatidis, ranked 616th on the Forbes World’s Richest People list, told The Post that he feels differently now about Cox.
“Chris is one of the nicest kids I’ve ever met,” he said. “Straight-arrow. Clean-cut. Honest as the day is long. It’s better than her running around, looking for anything.”
Few knew who Cox was, or that he was engaged to a much younger woman, until Andrea posted the news on Facebook. “Andrea is engaged to the greatest man in the world (besides her father of course!)! YAYYYYYY!!!!,” she wrote.
“I feel so comfortable with Andrea; she’s so advanced in her knowledge,” said Cox, calling from the stump in Suffolk County.
When asked what they have in common, he said, “We love politics.”
Shared hobbies? “Cooking’s great,” he said. “It’s a fun activity. We love to pick up different activities. Playing tennis. Swimming in the ocean. Being active.” They have also taken to campaigning together.
Cox met Andrea Catsimatidis in April 2008 while he was participating in a mock presidential debate, representing John McCain, at Hewitt, her all-girls high school on the Upper East Side.
Cox is the only son of Tricia Nixon Cox and Ed Cox, the head of the Republican Party in New York state.
The younger Cox went to Princeton, and worked as a lawyer and a consultant.
“He is as sheltered as you can get,” said a high-ranking state GOP official. “Not streetwise. Like an old-school stodgy Republican. He’s very rigid. I’ve maybe seen him have one drink at a cocktail party.” Then again, said the official, “his fiancée can’t legally drink.”
Cox proposed last month at a spot that had sentimental meaning for them both: her high school. “It was at 9 at night,” said Linda MacMurray Gibbs, head of school at the Hewitt. “We had the proposal on our security cameras.”