Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo (left) and Meeting Member Zohran Mamdani (proper).
Pictures by Lloyd Mitchell and Ethan Stark-Miller
Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo continues to carry a commanding lead within the Democratic major discipline for the 2025 New York Metropolis mayor’s race, bolstered by robust help from older voters, in keeping with a brand new ballot launched Tuesday.
The ballot from AARP New York and the Siena Faculty Analysis Institute discovered Cuomo was the highest first-choice decide amongst registered metropolis voters, incomes 34% help. After six candidates have been eradicated within the ranked-choice voting system, Cuomo would win the election within the eighth spherical of counting with 54% of the vote.
Within the first spherical, Meeting Member Zohran Mamdani adopted with 16%, whereas Comptroller Brad Lander, former Comptroller Scott Stringer and Metropolis Council Speaker Adrienne Adams every obtained 6%. Within the ultimate ranked spherical, Mamdani completed with 27%, adopted by Lander with 19%. About 20% of these polled stated they have been nonetheless undecided.
Polling carried out in March had Democratic socialist Meeting Member Zohran Mamdani (Queens) at 18% behind Cuomo’s 41% of first-round Democratic major votes.
Results of ballot’s simulated ranked-choice voting
Siena Faculty/AARP New York; chart created with AI
Cuomo’s robust displaying – regardless of his 2021 resignation amid 11 allegations of sexual misconduct, which he denies – was primarily pushed by help from older voters, pollsters discovered. Amongst voters age 50 and older, Cuomo obtained 42% of first-choice votes, far forward of every other candidate.
Cuomo additionally obtained the best help amongst voters with no faculty diploma, 48%. Amongst voters with a university diploma, 27% stated they might vote for him.
“Older New Yorkers are engaged, informed, and eager to shape the future of their city – and this poll shows their voices will make the difference in the race for mayor,” stated Beth Finkel, AARP New York State Director in a press release. “The issues most important to older New Yorkers – affordability, housing, safety, and aging in place – must be front and center in this campaign. Candidates ignore older voters at their peril.”
The April 7–10 ballot surveyed 811 registered New York Metropolis voters, together with 556 registered Democrats. It discovered that affordability and housing are high points for voters this yr.
About 94% of voters stated the price of residing within the metropolis is a really critical or considerably critical concern, whereas 88% recognized the supply of inexpensive housing as a significant downside.
“New Yorkers are giving the mayoral candidates a clear message — if you want my vote, tell me how you’re going to make life in the Big Apple more affordable and how you’re going to increase the supply of affordable housing,” stated Don Levy, director of the Siena Faculty Analysis Institute. “Crime remains a concern of voters, but over 90% say just affording life is a problem across all of New York City.”
On the difficulty of housing, Cuomo confronted backlash from his rivals Monday over his housing plan, which was launched over the weekend and included a reference to the factitious intelligence software program ChatGPT.
Cuomo, who has led the sector in polls and institutional help since getting into the race on March 1, additionally suffered a significant setback Tuesday when the New York Metropolis Marketing campaign Finance Board introduced it might not award him hundreds of thousands of {dollars} in public matching funds on account of a technical error.
Within the newest spherical of funding, Mamdani led the pack, with a reward of $3.8 million, near what his marketing campaign stated it anticipated to obtain final month.
