Zohran Mamdani’s Chances Of Becoming NYC Mayor Appear To Hinge On One Thing, Wildly Different Polls Show

Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani’s chances of beating independent candidate Andrew Cuomo in New York City’s mayoral race appear to be strongly correlated with the level of support for longshot Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa, according to a spate of recent polling.

Two polls released Thursday show that Mamdani, a self-avowed socialist, enjoys wide leads over Cuomo, the former Democratic Governor of New York, and Sliwa in the city’s mayoral race. On the other hand, a Suffolk University poll released on Monday — in which Sliwa polled lower than in the two more recent polls — found that Mamdani’s lead over Cuomo was only 10 points.  (RELATED: ‘Star Candidate’ — Leftist PAC Likens Virginia Democratic Nominee To Zohran Mamdani)

An Emerson College Polling/PIX11/The Hill survey released on Thursday found that Mamdani secured a 25-point lead over Cuomo, 50% to 25%, while 21% of voters backed Sliwa and 4% were undecided. Compared to a separate Emerson College poll released on Sept. 10, support for Mamdani in the mayoral election rose by seven percentage points, from 43% to 50%.

“Mamdani appears to have built a coalition across key demographics, increasing his margin among Black voters since last month, from 50% to 71%, whereas Cuomo dropped ten points among Black voters since September,” Spencer Kimball, executive director of Emerson College Polling, said in a statement. “Mamdani continues to have a base of young voters; 69% of voters under 50 support him, whereas 37% of voters over 50 support Mamdani, while 31% support Cuomo and 28% [Sliwa].”

NEW YORK, NEW YORK – OCTOBER 29: Former Governor Andrew Cuomo holds a news conference at an Italian American organization in Staten Island to highlight an image purporting to show his mayoral challenger, New York State Assembly member Zohran Mamdani (D), making a rude gesture to a statue of Christopher Columbus on October 29, 2025 in New York City. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

Meanwhile, a Marist University poll published on Thursday showed that Mamdani leading with 48% support, Cuomo gained 32% of the vote, Sliwa receiving 16% support and 3% reported they were undecided.

Sliwa has reportedly been facing increasing pressure from some Republicans to drop out of the New York City mayoral race in an effort to improve Cuomo’s chances of beating Mamdani in the election. Sliwa has doubled down on his plans to stay in the race until Election Day, saying during an Oct. 20 interview with Fox Across America that he would rather be “impaled” than drop his mayoral bid.

If Sliwa were to drop out of the contest, Mamdani would lead by only six points, receiving the backing of 51% of likely voters compared with 44% for Cuomo, according to the Marist poll. Moreover, 2% of voters said they would vote for someone else, and 3% were undecided, the poll found.

NEW YORK, NY – OCTOBER 28: New York mayoral candidate Curtis Sliwa attends a Turning Point USA event as he campaigns outside of Baruch College on October 28, 2025, in New York City. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

“My message to your readers is that a vote for Curtis Sliwa is a vote for Zohran Mamdani,” Rich Azzopardi, a spokesperson for Cuomo’s campaign, told the DCNF in an emailed statement. “For weeks this has been a tightening race with early voting showing a surge of older voters — the exact inverse of the primary —and turnout on track for between 1.9 and 2 million. With those dynamics, every poll out there is essentially meaningless from this point out.”

David Paleologos, director of the Suffolk University Political Research Center, said in a statement on Monday, when Suffolk’s poll was released, that he thinks Sliwa could have “an outsized impact” on the outcome of the Big Apple’s upcoming mayoral election.

“There is one person in New York City whose voters could have an outsized impact on the outcome. That person isn’t Mayor Eric Adams, Representative Hakeem Jeffries, Senator Chuck Schumer, or any New York billionaire. It’s Republican Curtis Sliwa,” Paleologos said. “And when asked for their second choice, those voters preferred Cuomo over Mamdani 36%-2%.”

Mamdani previously called for the New York City Police Department to be defunded, referring to the department as “racist, anti-queer and a major threat to public safety.” Though, the Democratic socialist has since downplayed some of his previous anti-police rhetoric.

President Donald Trump notably told reporters on Oct. 22 that if Sliwa dropped out of the Big Apple’s mayoral race, “maybe Cuomo would have a little bit of a chance, but not much.”

“He’s [Sliwa is] not going to win — and not looking too good for Cuomo either,” Trump added in his comments to the reporters at the time.

Cuomo claimed on Oct. 17 that Sliwa “cannot win,” adding that if “you vote for Curtis, save yourself the time, and vote for Mamdani,” The New York Times reported. Additionally, Cuomo suggested to SiriusXM host Stephen A. Smith during a Wednesday interview on “Straight Shooter with Stephen A.” that if Mamdani is victorious in New York City’s Nov. 4 general election, it would be “the death of the Democratic Party.” 

The Emerson College poll was conducted Oct. 25 to Oct. 27. The overall sample of NYC very likely voters/those who have already voted, n=640, has a credibility interval, similar to a survey’s margin of error, of plus or minus 3.8 percentage points. 

The Marist University survey of 1,134 New York City adults was conducted Oct. 24 to Oct. 28. Results for all adults (n=1,134) are statistically significant within plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.

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