Albany, N.Y. — Gov. Kathy Hochul leads her potential challengers for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination in a new poll from Siena College released Tuesday.
Hochul leads all her possible challengers so far by double digits. In a four-way race, 39% of Democrats in the poll favored Hochul, 20% supported state Attorney General Letitia James, 10% supported New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and 8% supported New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams.
When former Gov. Andrew Cuomo was included among the options, Hochul still came out on top at 31%. In that scenario, Cuomo got 17%, James got 14%, Williams 7% and de Blasio 6%. In a head-to-head matchup with James, Hochul leads 47% to 31%.
“Predicting June’s Democratic gubernatorial ballot 36 weeks from primary day, four months before a state party convention with only Hochul declared is not for the faint hearted,” Siena College pollster Steven Greenberg said in a press release. “That said, Siena presented Democrats with three potential primary matchups and in each case, Hochul leads by double digits. But let’s repeat, we are 36 weeks away with an unknown field, and most potential candidates being, like Hochul, largely unknown to a wide swath of voters.”
The races in all three scenarios were tight in New York City, Greenberg said. But Downstate suburban voters and Upstate Democrats gave Hochul large leads.
James led Hochul among Black Democrats, but Hochul had even bigger leads among both white and Latino Democrats.
Hochul also led her potential Democratic rivals for governor in a Marist poll released last week.
James has not yet announced she’ll run, although she’s considered a strong contender. Williams has formed an exploratory committee to consider entering the race.
U.S. Rep. Lee Zeldin is considered the leading Republican candidate.
Hochul’s job performance rating is now negative, with 45% of those polled saying that she is doing a fair or poor job and 43% saying she is doing excellent or good. In September, 44% rated her performance excellent or good and 37% rated it fair or poor.
Republicans and independents rate her performance much lower than Democrats.
Another 42% of those polled have a favorable view of Hochul and 26% have an unfavorable view, up 9 percentage points from September. The percentage of those with a favorable view was unchanged from the previous month.
Nearly a third of those polled didn’t have an opinion on her yet.
Pollsters questioned 801 registered voters in New York and the poll had a margin of error of plus or minus 4.1 points. The field included 419 Democrats. Questions directed to them had a margin of error of plus or minus 5.4 points.
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