MySQL Connector/Python Developer Guide
Syntax:
cnx.reconnect(attempts=1, delay=0)
Attempt to reconnect to the MySQL server.
        The argument attempts specifies the number of
        times a reconnect is tried. The delay
        argument is the number of seconds to wait between each retry.
      
You might set the number of attempts higher and use a longer delay when you expect the MySQL server to be down for maintenance, or when you expect the network to be temporarily unavailable.