NYC mayoral poll: Cuomo grows lead, Mamdani gains traction
NEW YORK (PIX11) – Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo is still holding onto the lead in the New York City mayoral race – but one other candidate is also gaining support, according to new exclusive polling conducted by PIX11 News in partnership with Emerson College and The Hill.
Cuomo, who entered the race in early March, is the first choice for 38% of voters. Then, there is someone new in second place – New York state Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani, who is polling at 10%. He's followed by current Mayor Eric Adams, who is now in third at 8%.
Just to underscore this slide by Adams, more than a quarter of the Democrats that were polled voted for him in 2021. New York State Sen. Jessica Ramos and New York City Comptroller Brad Lander both sit at 6%, while former City Comptroller Scott Stringer comes in at 5%.
Notably, 17% of voters remain undecided.
When it comes to voters’ second-choice pick, Stringer leads with 15%, followed by Lander at 13% and Cuomo at 10%. For third-choice preferences, Stringer again tops the list at 13%, with Ramos and Lander close behind at 12% and 11%, respectively.
The poll also reveals some significant shifts since February. Mamdani surged by 9 points and Cuomo gained 5 points, while Adams dropped by 2 points. The number of undecided voters also fell by 8%, showing that more voters are making up their minds even with three months to go until Election Day.
The two Democratic front runners seem appealing to certain age groups. Cuomo leads Mamdani among every age group – with Cuomo’s support generally increasing and Mamdani’s generally decreasing the older voters get.
In a hypothetical general election matchup, Cuomo, the Democratic frontrunner, maintains a commanding lead. Meanwhile, Republican frontrunner Curtis Sliwa is at 13%, and if Adams were to launch an independent bid, he would fall behind with 11% of the vote. However, a large portion of voters, 29%, remain undecided.
As for the issues those voters say they care about the most, crime leads the way with 33%, followed by housing at 23%. Immigration comes in third with 10% and health care rounds out the list at 7%.
One thing to point out – housing led the February poll with the same percentage. But crime went up 11% to become the top issue in the latest poll.
When asked whether congestion pricing should continue, voters were split – 44% said no, while 42% want it to remain in place; 14% are still undecided.
On the city’s sanctuary status, 46% of voters are in favor of preserving the city's sanctuary status, 34% support repealing the status, while 19% remain unsure.
President Donald Trump is currently trying to eliminate congestion pricing and sanctuary city policies. A majority of those polled, 63%, would want the winner of the mayoral election to take a stand against the president, while 28% would prefer to see the winning candidate work with him.
Trump’s approval rating remains low among New Yorkers, sitting at just 27%.
Methodology
The Emerson College Polling New York City survey was conducted March 21-24, 2025. The sample of New York registered voters, n=1,000, has a credibility interval, similar to a poll’s margin of error (MOE), of +/- 3 percentage points. The sample of Democratic Primary voters includes n=653, with a credibility interval of +/-3.8%. The data sets were weighted by gender, education, race, age, party registration, and region.
It is important to remember that subsets based on demographics, such as gender, age, education, and race/ethnicity, carry with them higher credibility intervals, as the sample size is reduced. Survey results should be understood within the poll’s range of scores, and with a confidence interval of 95% a poll will fall outside the range of scores 1 in 20 times.
Data was collected by contacting cell phones via MMS-to-web text and landlines via Interactive Voice Response (phone list provided by Aristotle), along with an online panel of voters provided by CINT. Panel responses were matched to the Aristotle voter file using respondents’ full name and ZIP code; responses that were not matched to a unique NYC voter were removed from the final data set. The survey was offered in English.
All questions asked in this survey with the exact wording and ordering, along with full results, demographics, and cross tabulations can be found under Full Results. This survey was funded by Emerson College/Nexstar Media.