The Democratic primary for the New York City mayor’s race has tightened further in the latest Marist Poll, with former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo ahead but with a narrower lead.
The poll released Wednesday showed Cuomo winning in the city’s ranked-choice voting system in the seventh round, 55 percent to 45 percent, over state Assembly member Zohran Mamdani in second. That’s still a somewhat comfortable margin for Cuomo but closer than the 60 percent to 40 percent margin in the last round that Marist’s poll from last month showed.
Ranked choice allows voters to select up to five candidates in order of the preference of support. The candidate with the fewest top preference votes is eliminated, and their votes are redistributed according to their supporters’ next preference.
The process continues until a candidate receives a majority.
In the first round, Cuomo is ahead with 43 percent, followed by Mamdani with 31 percent. City Comptroller Brad Lander, who made headlines Tuesday after his arrest by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, came in third with 8 percent, while New York City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams received 7 percent and former Comptroller Scott Stringer received 4 percent.
The other candidates received 2 percent or less.
The poll was conducted before Lander was detained as he was trying to guide an immigrant through court and released shortly after.
While Cuomo has the lead, an overview of the poll from Marist notes some voters’ support remains up for grabs for the top contenders, with 11 percent undecided in the first round and 11 percent not choosing Cuomo or Mamdani at any point on their ballot.
The results support other polls that show Mamdani closing the gap behind Cuomo, who has been the front-runner in the race for months. The margin of Cuomo’s lead has depended on the poll, but he’s kept the lead by at least several points in public, independent polling of the race.
The Marist poll showed Cuomo is strongest in the Bronx, with 49 percent support, and Queens and Staten Island, where he receives 44 percent. He rose in Manhattan from 32 percent last month to 41 percent now, while Mamdani is strongest in Brooklyn, where he receives 36 percent, up 11 points.
Mamdani has also made gains among Latinos, more than doubling his support from last month from 20 percent to 41 percent. He leads Cuomo among that group.
While Mamdani has made gains and notched key endorsements, including from Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), a win over Cuomo would be considered a significant upset. Mamdani also formally received an endorsement from 2021 mayoral candidate Maya Wiley, who came in third and ran as a progressive, on Wednesday.
Pollsters also found an increasing number of voters are following the race closely ahead of the primary next week. Three quarters of respondents said they’re following it closely or very closely, an increase from two thirds last month.
The poll was conducted among 1,350 likely Democratic primary voters from June 9-12. The margin of error is 4.3 percentage points.
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