NEW YORK (The Thursday Times) — New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s popularity among the city’s voters has jumped nine points in a month, with 69% now viewing him favourably, a Siena College poll released on Wednesday found, even as Republicans try to turn him into a liability for Democrats in next week’s governor’s race.
Among New York City voters, 69% had a favourable view of Mamdani and 28% an unfavourable one, up from 60% to 31% in September. Across the whole state his ratings were little changed at 47% favourable and 43% unfavourable, against 46% to 44% a month earlier.
A drag that isn’t working
Republican candidate Bruce Blakeman has repeatedly sought to tie Governor Kathy Hochul to the democratic socialist mayor, who took office in January as the city’s first Muslim mayor. The poll suggests the strategy has not paid off: 45% of voters said Mamdani’s endorsement of Hochul was a positive for her, against 30% who saw it as a negative.
Hochul leads Blakeman by 54% to 40% among likely voters, up from a nine-point lead in September, and by 67% to 23% in New York City. For the first time in her five years as governor, a majority of voters, 51%, view her favourably. “Heading into the final stretch, Hochul has a 14-point lead,” said Siena pollster Steven Greenberg, adding that voters “overwhelmingly think Hochul will win, 68-23%”.
President Donald Trump remains deeply unpopular in the state, with 61% of voters viewing him unfavourably and 62% disapproving of his job performance. Blakeman’s campaign accused pollsters of trying to suppress Republican turnout and said its internal polling showed a “neck-and-neck race”, without releasing figures.
A turbulent October
The rise comes after a turbulent month for Mamdani. He ordered the first review of police use of force in a decade after protests over a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement shooting in the Bronx, and drew criticism from pro-Israel groups and jeers of “traitor” for attending an October 7 vigil organised by Israelis for Peace.
The Siena poll of 807 likely New York voters was conducted from October 19 to 22 and has a margin of error of 4.1 percentage points.
