- Overwhelming Support For Several Hochul SOS/Budget Proposals, Including: Allowing NYers to Bring Civil Actions vs. Federal Officers They Claim Violated Their Civil Rights; Ensuring that Immigration Enforcement is Limited in Sensitive Locations; Increasing Childcare Funding by $1.7B; Eliminating State Income Tax on Tips
- New Yorkers Do Not Like ICE: 67% View ICE Unfavorably; 61% Oppose the Way ICE Is Working to Arrest People; 67% Say ICE Tactics Have Gone Too Far; 59% Oppose Additional ICE Agents Being Sent to NYC
- Trump Job Approval Break Even on Securing Border with Mexico; Underwater on His Handling of Deportations, Making Prices More Affordable, Making Americans Proud to Be Americans
Loudonville, NY. Governor Kathy Hochul continues to hold a commanding lead over Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, 54-28%, little changed from 50-25% in December, according to a new Siena Poll of New York State registered voters released today. Among registered Democrats, Hochul has an overwhelming 64-11% lead over Lt. Governor Antonio Delgado, up from 56-13% in December. Hochul’s 49-40% favorability rating, up from 43-41% in December, is the first time Hochul has hit 49% favorable.
Six Hochul proposals each has between 58-68% support, including four that have bipartisan support: eliminating state income tax on the first $25,000 earned in tips (68-15%), ensuring immigration enforcement targeting people whose only crime is being in the country illegally cannot occur in sensitive locations (schools, hospitals, places of worship) unless there is a judicial warrant (67-21%), increasing childcare funding by $1.7 billion (66-18%), and providing $30 million in payments to farmers to offset what Hochul calls rising costs due to tariffs (59-17%).
“As we start the second month of this much watched mid-term election year, Hochul has a commanding lead among registered voters over both Delgado, among Democrats, and Blakeman, with all voters,” Siena pollster Steven Greenberg said. “While a 49-40% favorability rating is not generally seen as something to gloat about, for Hochul it is a net seven point gain from December, but more noteworthy is the fact that it is the first time in four and a half years as governor that Hochul has had 49% of voters view her favorably in a Siena poll. Even though independents continue to view her unfavorably as do an overwhelming majority of Republicans, Democrats view Hochul favorably 69-20%, up from 62-25%, and the best she’s been with Democrats in three years.”
Hochul’s job approval rating is 54-41%, from 52-39% in December. Blakeman has an 18-20% favorability rating, from 13-17% in December. Delgado’s favorability rating is 21-18%, compared to 17-15% in December.
“Ten months from election day, Blakeman – largely unknown to three in five New York voters – has his work cut out for him. Hochul’s 79-8% lead among Democrats is significantly better than Blakeman’s 69-15% lead with Republicans, and she leads 41-34% with independents, as well as in every region of the state,” Greenberg said. “Against Delgado, among Democrats, Hochul has at least 60% support in every region of the state, as well as the support of 68% of self-described liberals and 65% of moderates.”
Several Hochul Proposals Are Widely Supported; Four Have Bipartisan Support
“Six Hochul proposals enjoy strong support from voters – overwhelming support from Democrats, strong support from independents, and two have majority Republican support, two have plurality Republican support and two are opposed by a plurality of Republicans,” Greenberg said. “Certainly, focusing on these issues in an election year will not hurt Hochul with voters, nor will it hurt legislators also seeking reelection.”
New Yorkers Don’t Like ICE and Don’t Want to See ICE Come Here
ICE’s favorability rating with voters is 28-67%. Voters support deporting immigrants illegally living in the U.S., 43-35%, however, they oppose the way ICE is working to arrest people, 61-29%. Two-thirds think ICE’s tactics have gone too far, and they oppose the federal government sending additional ICE agents to New York 59-33%.
“When it comes to ICE, voters quickly divide into partisan camps, with independents coming closer to the views of Democrats,” Greenberg said. “Republicans view ICE favorably, support the way they are working and nearly three-quarters want additional ICE agents sent to New York City. Democrats and independents say exactly the opposite: unfavorable to ICE, don’t like the way they work, and don’t want more of them in the Big Apple.”
Trump Favorability & Job Approval Ratings Remain Decidedly Underwater
Trump has a 33-63% favorability rating, from 32-62% in December. His overall job approval rating is 34-63%, virtually unchanged from 34-62% in December. Currently, 54%, the highest it’s ever been, say they strongly disapprove of the job Trump is doing as President.
“The more things change, the more Trump’s favorability and job approval ratings stay the same, that is to say seriously underwater,” Greenberg said. “In February 2014, when Trump’s name was in discussion to run for governor of New York, his favorability rating was 31-62%. In February 2018, after one year as President, his favorability rating was 33-62%. In February 2022, after being out of office for a year, his favorability rating was 35-59%. Today, it’s 33-63%. New York voters are nothing if not consistent when it comes to their feelings about Donald Trump.
“At the same time, it’s worth noting that in 2016 Trump lost New York to Hillary Clinton by 22 points. He lost New York to Joe Biden in 2020 by 23 points,” Greenberg said. “Yet, he ‘only’ lost New York by 13 points against Kamala Harris in 2024.”
Voters Evenly Divided on Approving Trump’s Job Securing Mexican Border; Negative on Everything Else
“Although 62% of Democrats disapprove of Trump’s handling of securing our border with Mexico, 83% of Republicans and a plurality of independents, 49%, approve, giving Trump his best individual job approval rating, 45-44%,” Greenberg said.
“Republicans ‘lowest’ support for Trump is on making prices more affordable, where they approve 64-22%. Trump gets his worst approval rating from Democrats (14-78%) and independents (31-56%) on his handling of the deportation of people illegally in the United States,” Greenberg said.
Odds & Ends
- Twenty-three percent of voters say Hochul Administration actions over the last year have improved their family’s financial condition, 33% say they have worsened it, and a small plurality, 35%, say they have not affected their finances. When asked the same question about Trump Administration actions over the last year, 23% say they improved their family’s financial condition, compared to 56% who say they worsened it, and 19% who said they had no effect. Interestingly, while 61% of Republicans say Hochul actions worsened their family finances over the last year, 75% say Trump actions improved them.
- New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has 48-32% favorability rating, from 46-31% in December. The 48% favorable is the highest it’s ever been for Mamdani. He is viewed favorably by 64% of Democrats, unfavorably by 68% of Republicans, and favorably, 43-31%, by independents.
- New Yorkers continue to favor Democrats on the generic congressional ballot, currently 56-29%, up slightly from 55-31% in December. While 84% of Democrats support a Democrat for Congress, and 77% of Republicans support a Republican, independent voters favor the Democrats 46-29%, up a little from 40-28% in December.
- Still digging out from his all-time low favorability rating in November, Senator Chuck Schumer now has a
- 39-46% favorability rating, up a little from 36-49% in December, which was up from 32-55% in November.
- Also looking to win reelection this year, Attorney General Letitia James has a 44-30% favorability rating, little changed from 45-31% in December.
- The other statewide official with a reelection race this year is Comptroller Tom DiNapoli who has 21-13% favorability rating. Astonishingly, despite winning election to his current office four times, when asked about DiNapoli, two-thirds of voters have either never heard of him or haven’t heard enough to form an opinion about him.
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This Siena Poll was conducted January 26-28, 2026, among 802 NYS Registered Voters. Of the 802 respondents, 330 were contacted through a dual frame (landline and cell phone) mode (188 completed via text to web) and 284 respondents were drawn from a proprietary online panel (Cint). Telephone calls were conducted in English and respondent sampling was initiated by asking for the youngest person in the household. Telephone sampling was conducted via a stratified dual frame probability sample of landline and cell phone telephone numbers weighted to reflect known population patterns. Both the landline telephone sample and the cell phone sample were obtained from MSG. Interviews conducted online are excluded from the sample and final analysis if they fail any data quality attention check question. Duplicate responses are identified by their response ID and removed from the sample. Three questions were asked of online respondents including a honey-pot question to catch bots and two questions ask the respondent to follow explicit directions. The proprietary panel also incorporates measures that “safeguard against automated bot attacks, deduplication issues, fraudulent VPN usage, and suspicious IP addresses.” Coding of open-ended responses was done by a single human coder. Data from collection modes was statistically adjusted by age, party by region, race/ethnicity, education, and gender to ensure representativeness. It has an overall margin of error of +/- 4.3 percentage points including the design effects resulting from weighting. Sampling error is only one of many potential sources of error and there may be other unmeasured error in this or any other public opinion poll. The Siena Research Institute, directed by Donald Levy, Ph.D., conducts political, economic, social, and cultural research primarily in NYS. SRI, an independent, non-partisan research institute, subscribes to the American Association of Public Opinion Research Code of Professional Ethics and Practices. For more information, call Steve Greenberg at (518) 469-9858. For survey crosstabs: www.Siena.edu/SRI/SNY.
