Former New York Gov. David Paterson, who previously backed Andrew Cuomo in the Democratic mayoral primary, will endorse Mayor Eric Adams on Wednesday as the race for mayor in the Big Apple heats up. The announcement comes on the heels of a newly released survey showing where the Democrat mayor stands against Cuomo, Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa, and Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani.
According to the Siena College poll of registered New York City voters, Adams trails the pack with only 7 percent support, compared to 44 percent who said they support Mamdani, a democratic socialist, 25 percent who support Cuomo, and 12 percent who back Sliwa.
“While City Democrats favor Mamdani over Cuomo 53-32%, with single digits for the other two, more than two-thirds of City Republicans support Sliwa. City independent voters are more closely divided, with 30% supporting Mamdani and 20% supporting Adams,” Siena pollster Steven Greenberg said. “City voters under 35 are overwhelmingly supporting Mamdani, as are a plurality of voters 35-54, however, voters 55 and older back Cuomo over Mamdani, 38-32%.”
“Mamdani, included in the Siena poll for the first time, has a 46-32% favorability rating with New York City voters and a negative 28-37% favorability rating among voters statewide,” Greenberg added. “Cuomo has an underwater favorability rating with City voters, 37-54%, and an even worse 29-61% favorability rating with statewide voters, the worst ever favorability rating for Cuomo in a Siena poll. In fact, among Democrats statewide, Cuomo’s favorability rating is 36-56%, down from 51-39% in March.
"Adams is also underwater with voters in the City, 30-58%, statewide 22-51%, and among Democrats statewide 22-59%,” Greenberg said. “Sliwa has a 26-30% statewide favorability rating, and 30-42% in the City.”
Cuomo and Adams have tried in vain to persuade each other to drop out and unite against Mamdani, who only appears to be getting stronger.
Despite the attacks he’s fielding from his rivals, Mamdani has recently focused instead on President Trump, going on a Five Boroughs Against Trump tour that kicked off Monday, hoping to position himself as the strongest candidate to stand up to the Republican president and the only one without ties to him.
“The fact is that the president has three candidates in this race — one that he’s directly been in touch with, another that he bailed out of legal trouble and now functionally controls, and the final one literally being a member of the same Republican Party,” Mamdani said in a radio interview.
