Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo — who has yet to announce his intentions — has a strong lead among registered voters in the New York City mayoral race, according to a new poll out Friday.
Cuomo captured 33% of the vote in the poll by Emerson College Polling/PIX11/The Hill. Mayor Adams trailed with 10% support.
They were followed by former Comptroller Scott Stringer at 8%, current Comptroller Brad Lander and State Sens. Zellnor Myrie and Jessica Ramos all at 6%. Twenty-five percent of voters were undecided.
Adams is facing a rocky path to reelection. He’s expected to head to trial in April on federal corruption charges and has hit historically low approval ratings. Cuomo, who resigned amid sexual harassment allegations in 2021, has become an early frontrunner in the race, despite not actually stepping in yet.
Without Cuomo in the race, Adams fared better at 16%, leading a wide filed of challengers. In that scenario, Stringer and Ramos received 12%, Lander got 7% of the vote and Myrie got 4%, according to the poll. The poll surveyed 1,000 registered voters between Feb. 3-5; it has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 points.
Petitioning for June’s Democratic mayoral primary begins on Feb. 25. Given that timeline, sources have said Cuomo, should he run, is likely to jump into the race by the end of February in order to give himself time for the resource-intensive petitioning process.
“It’s all remains premature, but Andrew Cuomo will always be a Queens boy who loves New York and will always help any way he can to have it succeed,” Rich Azzopardi, a spokesperson for Cuomo, said.
Spokespeople for Adams did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Without Cuomo as competition, Adams leads among Black voters — a key constituency for the mayor — at 23%. However, with Cuomo on the ballot, he loses that advantage: In that simulation, the poll shows Cuomo receives 35% of Black voters and Adams gets just 13%.
On Friday morning, Adams appeared at a Black History Month meeting hosted by the African-American Clergy and Elected Officials organization. Cuomo, while not in attendance, was on the minds of some of the speakers at the event.
Dee Bailey, the group’s chief of operations and an influential player in Black city politics, introduced Adams by asking the crowd who they would vote for if Cuomo hops into the mayoral primary.
“I’mma vote for my mayor of the City of New York, so I’m telling everybody,” Bailey said to applause. “I want you to know that I salute and support my mayor, Eric Adams.”
According to the poll, Adams’ favorability rating is at 27%, with 58% of voters replying they have an unfavorable view of the mayor. Cuomo has a 47% favorable rating and 37% unfavorable.
President Trump was also found to have a high favorability rating at 40%. Trump won 44% of New York City voters in the November election.
“Cuomo’s high name recognition gives him an early advantage, but the race is fluid with six months to go,” Spencer Kimball, executive director of Emerson College Polling, said.
The poll also found that 34% of voters strongly oppose the Department of Justice dropping the case against Adams and 42% strongly oppose ICE being allowed into schools and churches. Voters were split on whether mass deportations of undocumented immigrants was good or bad for the city.
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