Cuomo trails Mamdani by just 4 points if Sliwa drops out of NYC mayoral race: AARP poll

A new poll has found that if the New York City mayoral race was between just socialist candidate Zohran Mamdani and former Governor Andrew Cuomo, the independent candidate comes within striking distance of Mamdani. 

The Gotham Polling/AARP poll found that if Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa dropped out of the race, 44.6 percent of New Yorkers would vote for Mamdani, while 40.7 percent would vote for Cuomo, putting the former New York head within the margin of error of four points. The poll surveyed 1,040 likely voters over two days last week.

If all three remain in the race, Mamdani continues to have a substantial lead, taking in 43.2 percent support to Cuomo’s 28.9 percent and Sliwa’s 19.4 percent. 

While younger voters continue to back Mamdani, 78 percent of voters still undecided in the city are those ages 50 and older, which could be a boost for Cuomo, per the New York Post.

Stephen Graves, president of Gotham Polling & Analytics said, "The decisive factor in this race may be the older voters who haven’t yet made up their minds. If the contest narrows to two leading candidates, the 50-plus electorate — by far the most reliable voting bloc — will likely determine who becomes the next mayor of New York City."

When asked what the biggest issue was in the city, 63.6 percent of voters said that it was cost of living, 48.6 percent said public safety, and 38.9 percent said housing affordability. 

At Thursday’s debate between the candidates for mayor, Mamdani suggested that Cuomo isn’t qualified to be mayor of the city because he did not visit a mosque until Mamdani won the Democratic primary, defeating Cuomo. "It took Andrew Cuomo being beaten by a Muslim candidate in the Democratic primary for him to set foot in a mosque. He had more than 10 years and he couldn't name a single mosque at the last debate we had that he visited."

Mamdani was questioned about his plan for free buses and childcare for New Yorkers during the debate, to which he said he would "raise taxes on the top 1% of New Yorkers by 2%," and "raise the state's top corporate tax rate to match that of New Jersey" in order to replace the revenue the MTA would lose. 

Sliwa, the founder of the Guardian Angels, took aim at Democratic leaders over the city’s public safety issues. “I created the Guardian Angels to provide public safety in areas where government was incapable of doing so,” he said. “I didn’t do it to get a title or a paycheck.”

“Thank God I’m not a professional politician,” Sliwa later said. “We have the architect and the apprentice of no cash bail, which has been a disaster. We have the architect and the apprentice of raise the age. My own son was almost killed because of that, the gang attack. We have the architect and the apprentice of closing Rikers Island, which would just release criminals into the street.”