Zeldin, Giuliani, and Astorino Compete For Republican Nomination

The latest Emerson College Polling/PIX11/The Hill poll of New York voters finds that if former Governor Andrew Cuomo were to run as an Independent in the New York Governor’s election, 33% say they would support the Republican candidate, 33% say they would support the Democratic candidate, 16% would support Independent candidate Cuomo, and 18% are unsure.

The latest Emerson College Polling/PIX11/The Hill poll of New York voters finds that if former Governor Andrew Cuomo were to run as an Independent in the New York Governor’s election, 33% say they would support the Republican candidate, 33% say they would support the Democratic candidate, 16% would support Independent candidate Cuomo, and 18% are unsure.

Spencer Kimball, Executive Director of the Emerson College Poll said, “Support for Cuomo as a third-party candidate grows with age: 20% of voters over 65 would support Cuomo as a third party candidate compared to 9% of those between 18 and 29.”

Forty-six percent (46%) of New York voters approve of the job President Joe Biden is doing, while 44% disapprove. Biden has a 63% approval among New York Democrats, 14% among Republicans, and 41% among Independents.

Comparatively, 45% of New York primary voters disapprove of the job Kathy Hochul is doing as Governor while 36% approve. Among Democrats, Hochul has 47% approval, compared to 14% of Republicans and 33% of Independents who approve of the job she is doing as governor.

With that said, 45% of Democratic primary voters plan to vote for Governor Hochul, 12% for Tom Suozzi, and 22% are undecided.

In the Republican primary for Governor, Representative Lee Zeldin holds the plurality, 26%, of support, followed by Andrew Giuliani with 18%, and Rob Astorino with 16%. Nineteen percent (19%) are undecided.

Voters oppose Gov. Hochul and state lawmakers allocating $600 million in the state budget for a new Buffalo Bills stadium 67% to 17%; 16% are unsure.

“There is little appetite among voters for the $600 million funding of a new Bill’s stadium, even in the upstate region where the stadium would be located; only a quarter, 25%, of voters support the measure,” Kimball said.

A majority (57%) of voters support the MTA’s decision to continue mask mandates on public transportation, while 30% oppose, and 13% are unsure.

Eighty-four percent (84%) of voters are very (57%) or somewhat (27%) concerned about the level of gun violence in New York. Sixteen percent are not that concerned (8%) or not at all concerned (8%).

“Black New York voters are most concerned about the rise of gun violence, 80% say they are very concerned compared to 64% of Hispanics, 65% of Asians and 47% of white voters,” Kimball noted.

Among those who ride the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), a majority (52%) say they feel somewhat (21%) or very (31%) unsafe. Forty-eight percent of MTA riders say they feel very (17%) or somewhat (31%) safe.

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The Emerson College Polling New York poll was conducted May 1-3, 2022. The general sample consisted of registered voters, n=1,000, with a Credibility Interval (CI) similar to a poll’s margin of error (MOE) of +/- 3 percentage points. The Democratic primary consisted of 444 likely Democratic primary voters, with a Credibility Interval (CI) similar to a poll’s margin of error (MOE) of +/- 4.6 percentage points. The Republican primary consisted of 192 likely Republican primary voters, with a Credibility Interval (CI) similar to a poll’s margin of error (MOE) of +/- 7% percentage points. The data sets were weighted by gender, age, education, race, and region based on 2022 turnout modeling. It is important to remember that subsets based on gender, age, ethnicity, and region carry with them higher margins of error, as the sample size is reduced. Data was collected using a cellphone sample of SMS-to-web, an online panel provided by Amazon MTurk, and an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system of landlines.

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