Hochul Maintains Large Lead in NY Governor Primary, De Blasio a Distant Last

Gov. Kathy Hochul holds a commanding lead in a crowded field for the Democratic primary for governor — while will-he-or-won’t-he Mayor Bill de Blasio lags the field, according to a new poll released Monday.

Hochul garnered 36% support in the Data for Progress poll, 14 points better than AG Letitia James and 21 points ahead of predecessor Andrew Cuomo — who insists he isn’t running. (The poll was shared with Politico, which reported the results and posted the data early Monday.)

The rest of the actual or potential field is in the single digits, with De Blasio last of six candidates on 3% support. Some 11% remain undecided.

Removing Cuomo from the field widens Hochul’s lead by 1 point but also increases the pool of undecided voters to 16%.

Assuming the field were winnowed into a head-to-head matchup, Hochul would still lead James by 11 points. In a rematch of 2018 with Jumaane Williams, the governor would lead the NYC public advocate by 31 points.

In terms of favorability, almost everyone in the poll has a net positive score. Cuomo, who resigned as governor in August and is facing criminal sex charges in Albany, stands at -6.

As for De Blasio, his score is -26, with more than one in every three voters holding a “very unfavorable” view of the soon-to-depart mayor. He made a surprise appearance on MSNBC’s Morning Joe last week to announce a new statewide education plan – but did not, as expected, announce a bid for governor to actually implement it.

The text-message survey of 528 likely Democratic primary voters was conducted Nov. 16-17 and has a margin of error of 4 percentage points.