Mayor Adams said Monday he doesn’t “focus on polls” in response to a new survey that found former Gov. Andrew Cuomo holding a 20-plus point lead over Adams — even though the former governor hasn’t even entered the mayoral race.
Amid a slew of challengers, Cuomo’s potential entry into the race has become a topic of speculation. In the past few months, he’s switched his voter registration address to Manhattan, has spoken with a potential campaign manager and has been floating early February as a target date for a potential announcement, according to a source familiar with the matter.
Speaking Monday during his weekly City Hall briefing, Adams compared the new numbers on Cuomo to the early edge held by Andrew Yang in 2021, calling it “deja vu” and pulling out a print-out of a 2021 headline that read “Andrew Yang opens up huge lead in race to be next New York City mayor.”
“No one is going to outwork me,” Adams said. “I am so committed authentically to New Yorkers. They connect with me. I went through some difficult hurdles. It’s amazing I’m still in it with the number of things I had to go through, but I’m still here.”
Yang, an early leader in the race to replace former Mayor de Blasio, was ultimately the first candidate to concede and later finished fourth.
The new poll, commissioned by Progressives for Democracy in America, found Cuomo came in first in the ranked-choice-style poll at 32%, and Adams at 6%. It follows polling that have shown Adams likely facing an uphill battle to re-election: A December poll found Adams’ job approval rating is at an all-time low of 28% and an October survey revealed more than two-thirds of New Yorkers thought Adams should resign.
Cuomo, who resigned as governor amid a sexual harassment scandal in 2021, has for months been floated as a possible mayoral challenger to Adams.
In the poll, Scott Stringer landed second at 10%, with Brad Lander at 8%, State Sen. Jessica Ramos at 7% and state Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani at 6%. State Sen. Zellnor Myrie came in at 1% — with another 18% selecting “unsure.”
The poll was first reported by Politico and conducted on 800 voters between Dec. 16 and Dec. 22.
“We just wanted to know who might be competitive against Cuomo given obvious name recognition,” Alan Minsky, executive director of the group, said on why they commissioned the poll with Hart Research Associates.
With Chris Sommerfeldt
