Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who is not currently running for mayor, maintained his position as the leader of the Democratic mayoral primary field in the latest poll released Thursday night.
The Manhattan Institute, a conservative think tank, conducted the survey between Jan. 24 and 30. Although Manhattan Institute pollsters asked about the Democratic primary field, the 618 New York City voters they spoke to were not just Democrats. They also included attorney Jim Walden, who is not running as a Democrat, in the field.
The poll found that Cuomo, who resigned from the governorship in 2021 amid multiple allegations of sexual misconduct that he fiercely denies, would lead the current Democratic field with 30% of the first-choice votes in the ranked-choice contest. The results follow several other recent polls in which Cuomo, who has been rumored to be weighing a run for over a year, held a significant lead over the rest of the field.
Cuomo’s spokesperson Rich Azzopardi responded to the poll with a familiar statement, noting Cuomo’s standing in the race “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 and New Yorkers know he worked day and night for them,” Azzopardi said.
The Manhattan Institute poll puts Cuomo 16 points ahead of his runner-up, Mayor Eric Adams, who comes out with 14% and is followed by former city Comptroller Scott Stringer with 11%.
After ranked-choice tabulations, Cuomo maintained his win with 53% of the vote. The system allows voters to rank their top five candidates. Those candidates then go through instant runoff elections until the first to capture over 50% wins.
Adams and Lander would be eliminated in that round with 25% and 22% of the vote, respectively. Stinger would be eliminated in the 6th round with 14%, followed by state Sen. Jessica Ramos (Queens) in the 5th round with 7%, state Sen. Zellnor Myrie (Brooklyn) in the 4th round with 2%, and Assembly Member Zohran Mamdani (Queens) in the 3rd round with 2%.
Walden and former Bronx Assembly Member Michael Blake were dropped early with 0% of the vote.
The poll also found that Cuomo has a net favorability rating of -3%, (46% favorable, 49% unfavorable) among those surveyed. He likely has higher name recognition than any of the declared candidates, besides Adams, but is still dogged by the scandals that tanked his political career.
Adams remains deeply underwater with city voters—a trend that began even before he was federally indicted last year. The survey found that 69% of voters held a somewhat or strongly unfavorable view of the mayor, while 27% held a somewhat or strongly favorable view.
When asked about Cuomo’s lead in several recent polls, Adams has repeatedly pointed to Andrew Yang’s early lead in the 2021 mayor’s race that he ultimately won to show early polling is often not an indicator of where the race ends up. He has also insisted that his ability to connect with New Yorkers will send him over the finish line again.
“My story resonates with New Yorkers,” Adams said in January. “No one handed me an empire. I’m building empires for New Yorkers…So, I can’t sit back and worry about what the pollsters say, I have to listen to what the people say.”
Adams’ campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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