- Majority of NYC Voters: Mamdani Will Be Good for NYC; Plurality of Voters from Rest of NYS: He Will Be Bad for NYC; Voters Overwhelmingly Say Mamdani & Trump Will Not Work Together to Improve Quality of Life for NYers but Do Say Mamdani & Hochul Will
- Strong Majorities Oppose Trump on: Demolishing East Wing of White House, Deploying ICE Agents to City Streets, Increased Tariffs, Prosecuting Enemies, Bombing Boats Claimed to Be Venezuelan Drug Traffickers & Cancelling Fed $ for Gateway Tunnel
- Schumer Has Worst Ever Favorability Rating, 32-55%; Only 45-43% with Democrats
Loudonville, NY. Governor Kathy Hochul’s favorability and job approval ratings are each down five points from September. However, she continues to have a huge lead, 56-16%, in a Democratic primary against Lt. Governor Antonio Delgado, and a significant 20-point lead, 52-32%, over Rep. Elise Stefanik in a general election matchup, a little tighter than Hochul’s 52-27% lead in September. New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani has a 55-31% favorability rating among New York City voters, and a 40-40% rating statewide, up from 30-38% in September, according to a new Siena Poll of New York State registered voters released today.
New York City voters think Mamdani will be good for the City, 57-26%, while downstate suburban voters say he will be bad for the City 51-35%, as do upstaters, by a narrower 44-38%. Statewide voters overwhelmingly say that Mamdani and President Donald Trump will not work together to improve the quality of life of New Yorkers, but by a large majority say that Mamdani and Hochul will work together. New York senior Senator Chuck Schumer now has his worst-ever favorability rating, 32-55%, in 21 years of the Siena poll.
“Although Hochul saw both her favorability and job approval ratings slip a little, she continues to dominate Delgado among Democrats in a potential primary, and she maintains a strong lead over Stefanik the week after Stefanik declared her candidacy,” Siena pollster Steven Greenberg said. “Eight months out from primary day, Hochul has a commanding lead over Delgado among all Democrats, as well as upstaters and downstaters, men and women, liberals and moderates.
“In the race against Stefanik, Hochul continues to run very strongly with Democrats, 78-9%, however, Stefanik has now widened her lead among Republicans, 79-11%, up from 68-15% in September, and significantly narrowed the gap among independents, with whom Hochul now leads 40-36%, down from 43-25% in September,” Greenberg said. “Hochul has a 42-point lead in New York City but leads by only nine points in the downstate suburbs and a very narrow three points upstate.”
Hochul has a 43-45% favorability rating, down from 45-42% in September. Her job approval rating stands at 52-43%, down from 54-40%. Stefanik has a 28-36% favorability rating, up from 21-34% in September. Delgado has a 20-20% favorability rating; it was 21-18% in August.
“Currently, 42% of voters are prepared to re-elect Hochul, while 48% would prefer ‘someone else,’ improved from 37-51% in September. Among the nearly half of voters who prefer ‘someone else,’ 30% say another Democrat, while a majority, 53%, say they would like to see a Republican as the next Governor,” Greenberg said.
NYC Voters Like Mamdani & Expect Him to Be Good for NYC; Out-of-City Voters Are More Negative
Mamdani has a 40-40% favorability rating, up from 30-38% in September. Among New York City voters he has a 55-31% favorability rating, compared to 31-49% in downstate suburbs and 30-44% upstate. When voters were asked if they agreed with Mamdani supporters (new generation, progressive, will make NYC more welcoming and affordable) or opponents (radical, anti-Semitic, supports Islamic terrorism, communism, defunding the police), statewide they side with supporters 47-38%, and New York City voters are a stronger 57-26%.
“Among Mamdani’s new constituents, all New York City voters, he is viewed favorably, he is seen as good for the City, and a majority thinks he represents a new generation that will help make the City more welcoming and affordable. The remainder of voters across the state – from the downstate burbs to Buffalo – view Mamdani unfavorably and think he will be bad for the City,” Greenberg said.
“Upstaters, downstate suburbanites and City voters agree, saying that Mamdani and Trump will not work together to improve New Yorkers’ quality of life. All three regions also agree that Mamdani and Hochul will work together to improve New Yorkers’ lives,” Greenberg said. “Democrats strongly think Mamdani and Hochul will work together, 71-15%, as do pluralities of Republicans, 44-39%, and independents, 46-29%. And two-thirds of Democrats, Republicans and independents agree that Mamdani and Trump won’t work together.
Majority of Voters Oppose Half Dozen Actions Taken by Trump & His Administration
“Whether it’s increasing tariffs, building a White House ballroom, bombing Venezuelan boats, prosecuting so-called enemies, deploying ICE agents to American streets, or cancelling Federal funding for the Gateway train tunnel, Democrats are overwhelmingly opposed to actions taken by Trump and his Administration. A majority of independents also opposes each of these actions,” Greenberg said. “A majority of Republicans supports each of these actions, with the exception of Gateway funding, which has the support of a plurality of Republicans.”
Trump has a 35-61% favorability rating, essentially the same as 34-61% in September. His job approval rating stands at 37-61%, also little changed from 37-62% in September.
Schumer Has Worst-Ever Favorability Rating
“In February 2005 – the first Siena Poll in its current incarnation – Schumer had a 63-20% favorability rating. In July 2005, he had his all-time best favorability rating, 70-22%. December 2016 – the month before he became Senate Democratic leader – was the last time Schumer had a positive favorability rating with Republicans, 55-37%. Today Schumer is viewed unfavorably by 74% of Republicans and 61% of independents,” Greenberg said. “With Democrats, his favorability rating is barely positive, 45-43%, down from 52-36% in September.”
“Schumer is viewed unfavorably by a plurality of New York City voters, and strong majorities of downstate suburbanites and upstaters,” Greenberg said. “At the same time, it’s worth noting that Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has an overall 42-37% favorability rating. But it’s 62-20% with Democrats and 55-27% with City voters.”
NYers Concerned About Cost of Health Insurance; Favor ACA Subsidies; Trust Dems More than Reps
Nearly three-quarters of voters, 72%, say they are very or somewhat concerned about being able to afford health insurance for themselves and their families. Voters support renewing the Affordable Care Act subsidies 59-21%. And voters trust Democrats in Congress over Trump and Republicans in Congress 49-26% to ensure Americans have access to affordable health insurance. One-fifth of voters don’t trust either party on this issue.
“Two-thirds to three-quarters of Democrats, Republicans and independents are at least somewhat concerned that they will not be able to afford health insurance. Democrats overwhelmingly support renewing Obamacare subsidies, 76-8%, while independents support it 52-27%. Republicans, however, oppose renewing the subsidies by a 44-30% margin,” Greenberg said. “Who do voters trust more for affordable health care insurance? Democrats trust Democrats, 73-3, Republicans trust Republicans 67-13, and independents trust Democrats by a small 36-28% margin.”
New Yorkers Favor Democrats in Generic Congressional Ballot, 55-32%
“Not surprisingly in blue New York, a majority of voters would support a Democrat rather than a Republican for Congress. Even less surprising is that Democrats are voting for Democrats 85-8% and Republicans are voting for Republicans 83-9%. Independents find themselves closely divided with 40% favoring Democrats and 35% favoring Republicans in the generic congressional ballot,” Greenberg said.
Odds & Ends
- Voters now think New York State should oppose Federal government efforts to deport migrants illegally living in New York, 48-42%. In May, voters said the state should support Federal efforts 45-38%. While 82% of Republicans and a plurality of 46% of independents want to see the state support Federal efforts, two-thirds of Democrats want the state to oppose Federal efforts.
- Dividing largely along party lines, by a 53-36% margin, voters say immigrants should not be deported if being here illegally is their only crime. Nearly three-quarters of Democrats say they should not be deported, while nearly three-quarters of Republicans say they should be deported and independents are nearly evenly divided.
- Voters are strongly for increasing taxes on the wealthiest five percent of New Yorkers, 60-32%, and large corporations based in the state, 60-30%. Each is overwhelmingly supported by Democrats, strongly supported by independents, and opposed by Republicans, although Republicans only oppose taxing the top five percent 51-40% and oppose taxing big corporations 50-34%.
- By a relatively close 45-33%, voters favor the state approving the construction of a new underwater gas pipeline off New York City after hearing what both supporters and opponents of the pipeline say. Republicans support it 60-22%, as do independents, 46-28%. Democrats narrowly oppose the pipeline, 41-37%.
- Currently, 39% of voters think New York is on the right track, while 45% say the state is headed in the wrong direction, down from 42-41% in September. Similarly, only 30% say the country is on the right track, compared to 62% wrong direction, down from 33-59% in September.
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This Siena Poll was conducted November 10-12, 2025, among 802 NYS Registered Voters. Of the 802 respondents, 503 were contacted through a dual frame (landline and cell phone) mode (231 completed via text to web) and 299 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 was obtained from ASDE and the cell phone sample was 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 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 registration using data from the New York State Board of Elections. It has an overall margin of error of +/- 4.0 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.
