A new poll granted hope to former Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s campaign Thursday with Mayor Eric Adams out of the New York City mayoral race.
The Quinnipiac survey saw Cuomo up 10 percentage points in support from the last survey, when Adams was still in the race. Cuomo was expected to pick up some of Adams’s support.
Cuomo’s support went from 23% to 33%, though he still trails socialist Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee, who sits at 46%, by 13 points. Republican Curtis Sliwa remained at 15%, the same support as the last Quinnipiac poll in September.
“Today’s Quinnipiac poll confirms what New Yorkers are seeing across the five boroughs — this race is shifting decisively,” Cuomo spokesman Rich Azzopardi said in a statement shared with the Washington Examiner.
“The path is now clear: This is a two-person race between Andrew Cuomo and Zohran Mamdani,” he added.
The poll’s assistant director, Mary Snow, did not echo Azzopardi’s sentiment. Snow maintained that while the race’s numbers have changed, the outcome doesn’t look to have shifted.
“The numbers changed, but the contours of the race haven’t. Andrew Cuomo picked up the bulk of Adams’ supporters, cutting into Zohran Mamdani’s lead, but Mamdani’s front-runner status by double digits stays intact,” Snow said.
Mamdani also beat Cuomo by double-digits in enthusiasm among voters, whether they would change their minds about their vote, and net favorability. The socialist edged Cuomo out on most questions except one about experience and whether the candidate would grow the city’s economy.
1,015 likely voters from within the city were surveyed from Oct. 3-7, and the margin of error on the poll was plus or minus 3.9%.
Cuomo has trailed Mamdani for months in the polls, and the New York City Democratic machine has largely backed the socialist. But Cuomo has positioned himself as the primary resistance to Mamdani and hopes to face him individually.
That would require Sliwa to exit the race, even though he’s signaled it’s impossible. “Curtis Sliwa never dropped out of anything in his life,” he said recently.
President Donald Trump, whom Cuomo has reportedly spoken with, said last month he’d like a one-on-one race.
“I don’t think you can win unless you have one-on-one because somehow he’s gotten a little bit of a lead,” Trump told reporters.
“I would like to see two people drop out and have it be one-on-one,” Trump added. “I think that’s a race that could be won.”
The Quinnipiac poll was the closest result for Mamdani among the New York Times’s select pollsters since the beginning of August. But informed Democratic observers of the race, who believe Cuomo is still out of touch with voters, are taking it with a grain of salt.
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“Andrew Cuomo unironically told New Yorkers that rich people were using the bus to get around town,” New York-based Democratic strategist Max Burns told the Washington Examiner. “When you are that out of touch, being down 13 points must seem like a victory.”
The first two mayoral debates will be on Oct. 16 and 22, and early voting will start on Oct. 25.
