NEW YORK (1010 WINS) -- Two new polls released Thursday show Democrat Zohran Mamdani with a commanding lead going into the final days of the NYC mayor’s race.
A Marist Poll found Mamdani has a 16-point lead in the mayor’s race, getting the backing of 48% of likely voters compared to independent Andrew Cuomo’s 32%. Republican Curtis Sliwa received 16% support, while 3% were undecided.
The survey, conducted Oct. 24-28, found if Sliwa were to drop out, Mamdani would receive the backing of over half of likely voters, 51%, while Cuomo would get 44%. If Cuomo were to leave the race, Mamdani would have a 26-point lead over Sliwa, 59% to 33%.
A second new poll by Emerson College Polling/PIX11/The Hill found Mamdani with a 25-point lead over Cuomo, 50% to 25%. Sliwa had 21% support, and 4% of voters were undecided.
The survey, conducted Oct. 25-27, found support for Mamdani increased seven points from last month, when he was at 43%. Cuomo lost three points, while Sliwa gained 11 points.
Dr. Lee Miringoff, a pollster at Marist University, said Mamdani has a big advantage being the Democrat on the ballot in a heavily Democratic city.
“There are a lot more liberals and very liberal New Yorkers than there are conservative or very conservative New Yorkers,” he said. “And Cuomo’s doing well among the smaller groups, and I think that is in essence what the problem is.”
While Cuomo’s campaign is resonating with people over 60 years old, “he loses all the other age groups, and he loses them by a wider margin than he’s winning his own group,” Miringoff said, adding the support among older voters is “not enough to make this more competitive.”
There’s a “generational difference” happening in the race, he said, and “Mamdani is clearly doing it among younger and middle aged, and that’s the lion’s share of the votes.”
The two polls follow Wednesday’s release from Quinnipiac University, which had Mamdani up 10 points over Cuomo, 43% to 33%.