Cuo is catching up to Zoh.
New York City’s mayoral race is turning from a blowout to a dead heat – with ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo cutting front-runner Zohran Mamdani’s lead in half from a month ago, a new poll found.
Mamdani, the Democratic nominee, now leads the independent Cuomo just 44% to 34% among likely Big Apple voters, according to the Suffolk University survey released Monday.
The new survey’s margin is considerably tighter than the 20-point lead the democratic socialist Mamdani had over Cuomo in Suffolk University’s last poll conducted in September.
Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa remained in third place, notching 11% support in the recent survey – a haul that could ultimately keep Cuomo from thwarting Mamdani’s election despite the ex-gov’s recent gains, pollsters said.
“There is one person in New York City whose voters could have an outsized impact on the outcome,” said David Paleologos, director of the Suffolk University Political Research Center.
“That person isn’t Mayor Eric Adams, Representative Hakeem Jeffries, Senator Chuck Schumer, or any New York billionaire,” he said. “It’s Republican Curtis Sliwa, whose voters hold the 11% blocking Cuomo from winning the race.”
The latest survey was Suffolk’s first since Mayor Eric Adams dropped his pie-in-the-sky re-election bid and endorsed Cuomo.
It was also the second poll to show the former governor narrowing the gap with Mamdani since Hizzoner’s fateful decision.
Cuomo’s comeback comes with caveats, however, as the new Suffolk survey – conducted by phoning 500 likely general election voters from Thursday through Sunday – found a substantial portion of his support actually comes from opposition to Mamdani.
When asked if their votes were more about voting “for” Cuomo or “against” Mamdani, the ex-gov’s likely voters showed a 40%-40% respective split in their reasons, the poll found.
A resounding 79% of Mamdani’s likely voters, by contrast, said they were voting “for” the Queens assemblyman compared to the 7% who were doing so “against” Cuomo, according to the poll.
Cuomo was also now running roughly even among Hispanics after trailing Mamdani by 30 points in that demographic in the September poll.
He leads among independents by 10 points, a dramatic flip from a month ago, when he trailed Mamdani by 18 points among non-party-affiliated voters.
Seven percent of voters were still undecided and the four other candidates whose names are on the ballot garnered 2% support combined.
Sliwa remains a factor in the race. He and Cuomo are splitting the anti-Mamdani vote, making it harder to defeat the lefty Democratic nominee.
Many of Sliwa’s voters would back Cuomo if the red-beret clad Guardian Angels founder were not in the race, the poll found.
Cuomo would be the second choice of 32% of voters, compared to 3% for Mamdani, pollsters found.
Other candidates listed on the ballot are Adams, who recently endorsed Cuomo, Conservative Party nominee Irene Estrada, and independents Joseph Hernandez and Jim Walden.
Monday is the third of nine days of early voting preceding the Nov. 4 election.
