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Photo: Michael Nigro/Pacific Press/Getty Images

Recent polling shows Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani continuing to hold a sizable lead in the city mayoral race as the November election draws closer.

A Siena Institute poll published Tuesday found 44 percent of registered New York City backing Mamdani followed by 25 percent for former Governor Andrew Cuomo, 12 percent for Republican Party nominee Curtis Sliwa and only seven percent for Mayor Eric Adams. Broken down by party, Mamdani also receives the support of 53 percent of Democratic voters compared to 32 percent for Cuomo and three percent for Adams, who won the Democratic nomination just four years ago. Notably, 68 percent of Republican voters are supporting Sliwa. The poll surveyed 317 registered voters in New York City as part of a larger statewide voter sample from August 4 to 7.

Siena also looked at the candidates’s favorability ratings both in the city and statewide. 46 percent of city voters said they had a favorable opinion of Mamdani compared to 32 percent unfavorable. Statewide, those figures shift dramatically with 28 percent of voters viewing him favorably to 37 percent unfavorable. For Cuomo, 54 percent of city voters view him unfavorably while 61 percent of voters statewide also hold a negative view of the former governor. Adams also received low marks from city voters with 58 percent holding an unfavorable opinion of him compared to 30 percent who viewed him favorably.

This latest polling comes as the general election begins to heat up between the two leading candidates. Mamdani has gone after Cuomo in earnest following a New York Times report last week that claims the former governor spoke with Donald Trump over the phone as the president allegedly mulls taking a more active role in the race. Mamdani has called the call “disqualifying,” saying at one recent campaign event, “The job of mayor is not to audition to be the jester for a want-to-be king.” Both Cuomo and Trump have denied the call took place while the Times has said it stands by its reporting.

In turn, Cuomo has attempted to knock Mamdani for living in a rent-stabilized apartment, suggesting the state assemblyman is too wealthy and is keeping the property out of the hands of someone who needs it. There are currently no income restrictions for rent-stabilized apartments, and so the former governor took his trolling one step further and pitched “Zohran’s Law,” a proposal that would place income limits on incoming tenants for rent-stabilized apartments, requiring that the rent make up at least 30 percent of their income. Notably, the proposal, which only applies to vacancies, would not force Mamdani to leave his current apartment in Astoria, Queens. Cuomo campaign spokesman Rich Azzopardi pushed back on criticism that the proposal would require renters to be “rent-burdened,” which means a household is spending at least 30 percent of their income on rent. “30 percent is the same threshold for other housing programs like NYCHA & Section 8,” he said on X.

New Poll Shows Mamdani Crushing Cuomo

New Poll Shows Mamdani Crushing Cuomo