Cuomo's lead shrinks with under one week until New York City mayoral primary: poll

The 2025 race for New York City mayor is tightening, with former Gov. Andrew Cuomo's lead shrinking with less than a week to go until the crucial June 24 Democratic Party mayoral primary, a new poll indicates.

A Marist Institute for Public Opinion poll released Wednesday shows that Cuomo – the former three-term governor – is the top choice for 38% of likely Democratic primary voters in New York City. 

Cuomo, who resigned in 2021 amid multiple scandals, is now eyeing a political comeback and working to redeem his image.

Zorhan Mamdani, a 33-year-old democratic socialist state assemblyman from Queens, stands in second place in the poll, with 27% support in the primary, which is conducted using a ranked-choice voting system in which voters rank candidates by preference on their ballots.

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Mamdani, who is originally from Uganda, cut Cuomo's lead by nearly half from a Marist poll conducted a month ago, thanks in part to consolidating progressive support in the 11-candidate mayoral primary field.

Progressive Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, New York City's most prominent leader on the left, endorsed Mamdani earlier this month. Earlier this week, longtime progressive champion and two-time Democratic presidential nominee runner-up Sen. Bernie Sanders backed Mamdani.

With multiple candidates on the left running in the primary, the endorsements by Ocasio-Cortez and Sanders aimed to consolidate the support of progressive voters behind Mamdani.

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"Mamdani is clearly in Cuomo’s rearview mirror," Marist polling director Lee M. Miringoff told Fox News.

The poll indicates that New York City Comptroller Brad Lander is a distant third in the primary battle.

The survey was conducted June 9-12, before the final debate between the candidates and ahead of Lander's arrest on Tuesday by Department of Homeland Security agents in Manhattan, after allegedly assaulting a federal officer as Lander tried to escort a defendant out of an immigration court.

The poll was also conducted before the launch of an ad blitz questioning Mamdani's experience leading a city of more than 8 million people.

"Zohran Mamdani’s a 33-year-old dangerously inexperienced legislator who’s passed just three bills with a staff you can fit inside a New York elevator," the narrator in a Cuomo campaign ad said. "We need someone ready to roll. Andrew Cuomo managed a state and managed crises, from COVID to Trump."

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Cuomo adviser and spokesperson Rich Azzopardi, when asked by Fox News about the new Marist survey, said, "This is the second poll in two days that showed Andrew Cuomo beginning and ending rank choice voting with a double-digit lead in a crowded multi-candidate race. These are serious times and New Yorkers know that Andrew Cuomo is the only candidate with the experience and the real record of results to fix what’s broken and put the city back on the right track."

The 67-year-old Cuomo has spent the past four years fighting to clear his name after 11 sexual harassment accusations, which he has repeatedly denied, forced his resignation. He was also under investigation at the time for his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic amid allegations his administration vastly understated COVID-related deaths at state nursing homes. 

Last month, the Justice Department opened a criminal investigation into Cuomo after Republicans accused him of lying to Congress about the decisions he made as governor during the coronavirus pandemic.

More than 130,000 Democrats have already cast ballots in early voting in the Democratic primary, ahead of next Tuesday's election.

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The winner of the Democratic Party primary is traditionally seen as the overwhelming frontrunner in the November general election in the heavily blue city.

However, this year, the general election campaign may be a bit more unpredictable.

Incumbent Mayor Eric Adams, a moderate Democrat elected in 2021, is running for re-election as an independent. Adams earlier this year dropped his Democratic primary bid as his approval ratings sank to historic lows.

While he is not on the ballot, President Donald Trump has taken center stage on the campaign trail in the closing weeks of the New York City primary battle.

Cuomo and many of the other candidates in the race have heavily criticized Trump's recent move to place National Guard troops and U.S. Marines in Los Angeles in an effort to quell unrest sparked by an increase in ICE arrests of illegal immigrants orchestrated by the administration.

The candidates are vowing to protect the city from what they suggest is a possible future federal crackdown against immigration protests in New York City.