New York City Jewish voters are more supportive of former NY governor Andrew Cuomo than other NYC mayoral candidates, according to a Thursday Marist University Poll, and would back Cuomo over NY Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani if Guardian Angels Founder Curtis Sliwa were to drop out of the race.
Fifty-five percent of NYC Jewish voters would back Cuomo if the election were held today, according to the Marist survey conducted from October 23-26. In a Wednesday Quinnipiac University poll conducted during a similar time frame, Cuomo garnered 60% of the same demographic.
In the Marist Poll, Mamdani received 32% of the Jewish vote, while the Quinnipiac poll showed half as much Jewish support. Sliwa got 11% and 12%, respectively. Two percent of Jewish respondents told Marist they would vote for someone else, and 1% were undecided, while 8% said they were undecided and 3% in favor of another candidate when responding to Quinnipiac.
In a September Marist poll, both Mamdani and Cuomo had the support of 35% of Jewish voters, indicating that Jewish voters had consolidated behind Cuomo since Eric Adams had dropped out.
If Republican candidate Sliwa were to drop out, the Marist poll indicated that most Jewish voters would consolidate behind Cuomo rather than Mamdani. 61% of Jewish respondents said that they would back Cuomo, compared to Mamdani's 31%. The number of Jewish voters who would support other candidates grew by one percentage point, while undecided Jewish voters rose to 4%.
If Cuomo were to drop out, Jewish voters would split between Mamdani and Sliwa, according to the Marist Poll. Mamdani would win 47% of Jewish voters, 39% would back Sliwa, and 9% would support other candidates. The change in the race would leave 6% of Jewish voters undecided.
Unlikeable candidates
As in the Quinnipiac poll, the Marist poll indicated that Cuomo's backing was not driven by a great love for the former governor. Marist found that 74% of Jewish voters had an unfavorable opinion of Cuomo, while 25% had a favorable one. In the Quinnipiac poll, 50% of respondents had an unfavorable opinion of Cuomo, and 39% had a favorable opinion. Mamdani had a 63% to 36% unfavorability rating in the Marist poll, and 75% to 15% in the Quinnipiac poll. 53% of Marist respondents held unfavorable views of Sliwa, and 37% held favorable views. Both Marist and Quinnipiac showed greater uncertainty about Sliwa than about the other two candidates, with 10% and 29% of respondents unsure about him, respectively.
According to the Marist poll, Jewish voters who held unfavorable views of Mamdani expressed a stronger dislike of the assemblyman than those who held unfavorable views of Cuomo. Forty-four percent of respondents held a very unfavorable opinion of Mamdani, and 19% said they perceived him somewhat unfavorably. Thirty-two percent of Jewish respondents said that they had a very unfavorable view of Cuomo, compared to 42% that said they had a somewhat favorable view of him. However, those who liked Mamdani held this sentiment strongly than those who were favorable to Cuomo. Only 5% of respondents held very favorable views of Cuomo, compared with 26% for Mamdani. Twenty percent of Jewish voters had a somewhat favorable view of Cuomo, while 10% had a somewhat favorable view of Mamdani.
Living conditions in NYC
The overall negative sentiment toward the candidates was also reflected in respondents' views on the conditions in their city. Seventy percent of Jewish respondents told Marist that they believed NYC was headed in the wrong direction, and only 26% said it was headed in the right direction. Five percent of Jewish respondents were unsure about the city's direction.
As election day looms on Tuesday, Marist indicated that 51% of NYC Jewish voters would vote in person on the election day, while 36% would vote at an early voting ballot. Twelve percent of Jewish respondents told Marist that they would mail their voter, and 2% were uncertain about the medium in which they would cast their vote.
While Jewish voters preferred Cuomo, the general polling by Marist showed that Mamdani was leading with 48% of the vote. Cuomo had 32% of the vote, and Sliwa 16% in the Marist Poll. In the Quinnipiac poll, Mamdani had 43%, Cuomo 33%, and Sliwa 14%. Quinnipiac had 6% undecided, while Marist had half of that.
Marist noted that in a two-way race between Mamdani and Cuomo, the Democrat would get 51% of likely voters compared to the independent's 44%.