NEW YORK (1010 WINS) — Andrew Cuomo maintains a double-digit lead over the rest of the field in New York City’s mayoral Democratic primary, according to a new Siena College poll, prompting a group of Brooklyn Democrats on Wednesday to endorse three of the former governor’s biggest challengers in an attempt to stop his momentum.
The Siena College survey, conducted with the AARP last week, polled 811 registered voters in NYC, with specific focus on the 556 that identified as registered Democrats.
Nearly 90% of registered Democrats are expected to vote, and 34% of survey respondents said that Cuomo would be their first choice for mayor in their ranked-choice voting selection.
He is followed most closely by Zohran Mamadani, the democratic socialist candidate and Queens assemblymember who was the first choice of 16% of registered voters, leaving Cuomo with an 18-point lead.
Despite Mayor Eric Adams’ dramatic exit from the primary in favor of an independent run at reelection, the field has remained relatively static, with Cuomo’s lead over Mamdani remaining sizable, though slightly less significant than that in last month’s Emerson College and Honan Strategy Group polls.
The Siena College poll is one of only a few that simulates NYC’s ranked-choice voting system, which was first adopted in 2021 and allows voters to select up to five candidates in order of preference.
Behind Cuomo and Mamdani, the remaining candidates received single digits in the first round, but the former governor was only able to secure the victory by the eighth round, defeating Mamdani 54% to 27%, with NYC Comptroller Brad Lander receiving 19% of the vote at that point.
These splits are significant considering the Lander campaign’s push for voters to not rank Cuomo at all, an effort to keep him out of office that was mimicked Wednesday by a coalition of Brooklyn Democrats who endorsed three alternative candidates: Mamdani, Lander and NYC Council Speaker Adrienne Adams.
The group of seven Democrats includes Rep. Nydia Velázquez, who wrote on social media that the candidates are “in this race for the right reasons” and told the New York Times that Cuomo was leading because people knew his name, not because he would properly stand up for the working class.
Velázquez was joined in her endorsement by prominent Brooklyn officials Antonio Reynoso, the borough president; state legislators Julia Salazar and Emily Gallagher; and city councilmembers Lincoln Restler, Sandy Nurse and Jennifer Gutiérrez.
Endorsement graphics dub the candidates the mayoral “Dream Team,” and some officials like Gallagher and Salazar expanded their endorsements with additional candidates to further the impact of ranked-choice voting.
Both state lawmakers endorsed State Sen. Zellnor Myrie, with Gallagher also putting support behind State Sen. Jessica Ramos.
Salazar explained her group of endorsements, stating that “Supporting these four candidates and strategically using Ranked Choice Voting is essential for our city to defeat Cuomo, and elect a mayor who we can hold accountable to fight for working people.”
The Siena College Poll identified the biggest issues for voters in the race as affordability, housing, crime and pedestrian safety, placing public safety plans and programs to bring the cost of living down at the front of their minds.
The poll’s overall sample margin of error is 3.7 points, while the margin for Democratic voters is 4.9 points.
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