NEW YORK (1010 WINS) — Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s lead in the race for New York City mayor has surged, according to a new poll that puts Queens Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani in second place and has Mayor Eric Adams struggling.
Cuomo now leads the pack among Democratic primary candidates with 41% of the vote, the poll from Honan Strategy Group shows. This is an increase of 3 percentage points since the group’s January poll.
The former governor’s favorability went up 4 points since the last poll, and his unfavorables went down 7 points, granting Cuomo a positive net increase of 11 points in the last few months.
“Former Governor Cuomo’s lead is largest with Latino voters, where he’s winning 64% of the vote, and also women, where he’s winning 51% of the vote,” Honan Strategy Group CEO Bradley Honan said. “That seems to be his area of greatest strength.”
In second place and asserting himself as an alternative to Cuomo is Mamdani, who has continued to strengthen his position on the ballot. The poll shows him winning 18% of the vote, a 6-point increase since January.
“Zohran Mamdani’s favorability, he’s now up to 30% favorable, which is plus 11 from January,” Honan said. “There has been about a 10-point decline in those unfamiliar with Mamdani or don’t have an opinion of him.”
Comptroller Brad Lander trails Mamdani with 8% of the vote, while Adams maintains 6%.
“The city is seen definitely as being off on the wrong track, and if only 3% believe that Eric Adams has a record of accomplishment, it’s why I think he is considering going another route with his political future in terms of running on another ballot line,” Honan said.
The embattled mayor, whose federal corruption charges will likely be dropped in the coming weeks at the request of the Justice Department, has struggled early on in the crowded primary race, only raising $19,000 as of last week for his reelection. Despite this and previous comments that the Democratic Party “left him,” the mayor dispelled rumors at his weekly media availability on Monday that he would run as an independent.
“I’m going to be running as a Democrat, I say this over and over again, and we will map out our plan when time is fitting,” the mayor said. “But I’m running as a Democrat.”
Adams does not yet have any campaign events planned, but stressed that the process is different for an incumbent, who is already all over the city interacting with voters.
The mayor last week refused to answer “hypotheticals” on whether he would run as an independent in the general election if he lost the primary, but according to the poll, the change would not shift many voters.
“What the data found pretty emphatically, eight in 10 say that no matter what he says or does, they will never vote for Eric Adams,” Honan said.
The poll—which surveyed 909 likely Democratic primary voters from March 18 to 20—has an overall margin of error of 3.24%.