New York City Democratic mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani holds a 20-point lead over his closest opponent, former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, in a Suffolk University CityView poll released this week.
The survey, which includes likely voters in November’s general election, shows Mamdani in the lead with 45 percent support, followed by Cuomo with 25 percent, Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa with 9 percent and incumbent Mayor Eric Adams with 8 percent. Cuomo and Adams are running as independents.
Three other candidates — Conservative Party nominee Irene Estrada, independent Joseph Hernandez and independent Jim Walden — earn a combined 1 percent support.
Nine percent of voters said they are undecided, and 3 percent refused to say.
Asked about the top issue in the race, 21 percent said affordability; 20 percent said crime; 14 percent said economy and jobs; 9 percent said housing; 8 percent said “local response to [President] Trump initiatives”; 7 percent said racism, justice and equality; and 6 percent said schools and education. Other issues polled less than 4 percent.
A slim majority, at 51 percent, said life in New York City is “somewhat or very unaffordable.” Fifty-eight percent, meanwhile, said the economy is worse under President Trump, while 23 percent said it was worse under former President Biden.
More than half, at 56 percent, said they reject accusations that Mamdani is antisemitic.
“This poll shows that the issues New Yorkers really care about in this election are affordability, crime, and the economy,” Suffolk University Political Research Center Director David Paleologos said in a statement.
The poll is similar to other recent surveys that show Mamdani with a commanding lead over his competitors. A New York Times/Siena University poll earlier this month had Mamdani leading with 46 percent, followed by Cuomo with 24 percent, Sliwa with 15 percent, and Adams with 9 percent.
An Emerson College Polling/PIX11/The Hill survey earlier this month showed Mamdani with a 15-point lead over Cuomo, 43 percent to 28 percent. Sliwa followed with 10 percent, and Adams behind him with 7 percent.
The Suffolk University survey was conducted Sept. 16-18 and included 500 likely New York City voters. The margin of error is 4.4 percentage points.