- 49% Say New York’s Best Days Are Still Ahead & 32% Say Best Days Are Behind Us; 36% Say NY Does Not Spend Enough on Programs Like Health Care, Education & Infrastructure, 22% Say NY Spends Too Much & 29% Say NY Spends the Right Amount
- Trump Favorability & Approval Ratings Edge Down; Fav Rating Lowest in Current Term; Job Approval Hits Lowest Ever ‘Strongly Approve’ & Highest Ever ‘Strongly Disapprove’
- America’s Pope, Leo XIV, Viewed Favorably 55-19% Nearly a Year into Papacy; After Two Years as Pope, in 2015, Pope Francis was Viewed Favorably 73-11%
Loudonville, NY. Governor Kathy Hochul has a 41-46% favorability rating, down from 45-42% in March, her lowest favorability rating since June 2025. Her job approval rating stands at 48-44%, down from 52-40% in March, her lowest job approval rating since April 2025. At the same time, Hochul’s lead over Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman edged up three points to 49-33%, from 47-34% in March, according to a new Siena Poll of New York State registered voters released today.
Voters say, 49-32%, New York’s best days are still ahead, rather than behind us, and 7% say New York’s best days are taking place now. When it comes to New York’s $260+ billion budget and the money going to health care, education, infrastructure, and other programs, a plurality of voters, 36%, says the state does not spend enough, compared to 29% who say the spends the right amount, and 22% who say the state spends too much.
“Is it the late state budget? Is it something the Governor has said or done? Hard to say, but either way, Hochul heads into a campaign – with an election 26 weeks from today – with her lowest favorability and job approval ratings in about a year,” Siena pollster Steven Greenberg said. “Both Hochul’s favorability and approval ratings fell the most in the last month with independents, men and voters from New York City. While she continues to be in positive territory on both measures in New York City, she has fallen even deeper underwater with independents.
“Yet, Hochul’s lead over still-largely-unknown Blakeman – 64% of voters have never heard of or don’t have an opinion about him – has nudged up three points in the last month to 49-33%,” Greenberg said. “Six months out, voters are largely in their partisan lanes. Three-quarters of Democrats are with Hochul. Three-quarters of Republicans are with Blakeman. And independents tilt toward Blakeman by two points, down from seven points in March. Hochul leads by 34 points in New York City and by a handful of points outside of the City.”
Half of Voters Say NY’s Best Days Are Ahead But 1/3 Say They’re Behind Us; Plurality Says Spend More
“Democrats, by a 61-22% margin say New York’s best days are ahead of us, while a plurality of Republicans, 45-32%, says our best days are behind us. Independents are nearly evenly divided,” Greenberg said. “A majority of New York City voters and a plurality of upstaters say our best days are to come, while downstate suburbanites are evenly divided.
“Two-thirds of New Yorkers say either the state budget doesn’t spend enough on programs like education, healthcare, roads, and mass transit, or the state spends just about the right amount of money, while only 22% – including a plurality of Republicans – say the state spends too much on these programs,” Greenberg said. “Nearly half of Democrats say the state doesn’t spend enough, and only 12% say the state spends too much. Yet again, independents are almost evenly divided, 29% just right, 27% too much, 25% not enough.”
NY Barely on Right Track on K-12 Ed & Environment; Deeply Underwater on Cost of Living & Housing
“On seven issues – cost of living, housing, crime, healthcare, infrastructure, environment, and education – a majority or plurality of Republicans and independents say the state is headed in the wrong direction. A majority of Democrats think the state is on the right track on five issues, but even Democrats agree with Republicans and independents that the state is headed in the wrong direction on housing and cost of living,” Greenberg said.
Trump Ratings Down; Lowest 2nd Term Favorability Rating; Highest Strongly Disapprove on Job Approval
President Donald Trump has a 33-64% favorability rating, down from 35-62% in March. His job approval rating is 34-64%, down from 37-61% in March.
“The drop in Trump’s favorability and job approval ratings is not because of Democrats; they overwhelmingly continue to view Trump unfavorably and strongly disapprove of the job he’s doing. It’s not the independents, with whom his negative numbers improved slightly. No, it’s Republicans. His favorability rating among Republicans is down to 65-27%, from 78-18%, and his job approval rating is down to 71-27%, from 84-15%,” Greenberg said.
“This is the lowest favorability rating – net -31 points – during Trump’s current term in office. It also represents the highwater mark for voters who strongly disapprove of the job he’s doing, 55%, and the low water mark for those who strongly approve of the job he’s doing, 19%.”
Strong Majorities Say US Headed in Wrong Direction on Seven Issues; Republicans Disagree on 5½
“Strong majorities of New Yorkers, including overwhelming majorities of Democrats, think the country is headed in the wrong direction on seven issues from making prices more affordable to creating opportunity,” Greenberg said. “Republicans disagree and think America is on the right track on five of the issues, but they are closely divided on AI, and they agree with Democrats on making prices more affordable. Majorities of independents think the country is headed in the wrong direction on six of the issues, but they are closely divided on enforcing immigration policies.”
Majority of NYers View Pope Leo XIV Favorably; Not Nearly as High as Pope Francis’ Favorability
His Holiness Pope Leo XIV has a 55-19% favorability rating as he approaches the first anniversary of his papacy. Two years into his papacy in 2015, Pope Francis had a 73-11% favorability rating.
“America’s Pope is viewed favorably by two-thirds of Democrats, 66-15%, and pluralities of Republicans,
43-27%, and independents, 45-19%. In 2015, Pope Francis was viewed favorably by at least 70% of Democrats, Republicans and independents,” Greenberg said. “New York Catholics view Pope Leo favorably, 62-18%, although they viewed Pope Francis favorably, 83-6%. It is still early in the papacy of the Chicago native, but it seems that even the Pope is not immune to being viewed through the prism of America’s current political winds.”
Odds & Ends
- Whether it’s the late state budget or something else, voters’ views of the State Legislature have soured a little since January. The Assembly’s favorability rating is now 33-36%, down from 41-32% in January. Similarly, the State Senate’s favorability rating is 35-39%, down from 43-37% in January.
- NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani is still viewed favorably – barely – by a plurality of voters statewide, 43-40%, down a little from 44-37% in March and 47-35% in February. His favorability rating in New York City is 56-34%, and it is worth noting, higher than Hochul, 46-37%, Attorney General Letitia James, 49-24%, and Senator Chuck Schumer, who is viewed unfavorably by New York City voters 37-45%.
- The Democrats’ lead on the generic congressional ballot is little changed and stands at 52-33%, from 52-35% in March.
- Schumer’s favorability rating is 33-52%, down from 38-48% in March, and perilously close to his all-time worst favorability rating, 32-55%, in November 2025. Democrats continue to view him favorably, but only by a 47-40% margin, down from 51-36% in March.
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This Siena University Poll was conducted April 27-30, 2026, among 806 New York State Registered Voters. Of the 806 respondents, 516 were contacted through a dual frame (landline and cell phone) mode (112 completed via text to web) and 290 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. The landline telephone sample and the cell phone sample were obtained from Marketing Systems Group (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 that ask respondents 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 weighted to balance sample demographics to match estimates for New York State’s population using data from the Census Bureau’s 2023 U.S. American Community Survey (ACS), on age, region, race/ethnicity, education, and gender to ensure representativeness. The sample was also weighted to match current patterns of party by region registration using data from the New York State Board of Elections. It has an overall margin of error of +/- 4.2 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 (SRI) powered by ReconMR is directed by Donald Levy, Ph.D. SRI 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.
