Cuomo Negative Rating Soars, But He Still Leads Nixon, Molinaro

Among Democrats, Cuomo has a 62-32 percent favorability rating, compared to 33-23 percent for his Democratic Party primary challenger, Cynthia Nixon. Head-to-head, Cuomo leads Nixon among registered Democrats by 58-27 percent, down from 66-19 percent last month -- before Nixon declared her candidacy. 

Cuomo maintains large leads over Republican Dutchess County Executive Marc Molinaro and state Sen. John DeFrancisco, R-Syracuse, the poll found.

“Since the last Siena College poll, Nixon declared her candidacy, Senate Democrats promised kumbaya, there was public debate over the definition of ‘qualified lesbian,’ and Nixon appears to have secured the Working Families Party line for November,” said Siena College pollster Steven Greenberg. “The race has just started and there’s still five months to go. In a variation of Bette Davis’ famous line: fasten your seatbelts; it’s going to be a bumpy ride."

With a 49-44 percent favorability rating, Cuomo matched his lowest favorability rating as governor, which previously occurred in July 2015. Since January, when he enjoyed the best favorability rating of his second term, Cuomo’s favorability rating has dropped net 27 points, from 62-30 percent.

Greenberg said, “One month into her first run for office, Nixon remains largely unknown to almost half of voters and almost half of Democrats." 

“Cuomo leads Nixon by 25 points with men and 37 points with women. He leads by 23 points among white Democrats and more than double that with both black and Latino Democrats. Early on, Cuomo seems to be in a strong position to again be the Democratic Party’s standard bearer, however, Nixon has narrowed the deficit more than a little in the last month and the campaigns are just gearing up,” Greenberg said.

Molinaro and DeFrancisco each remain unknown to three-quarters of voters. More than half of registered Republicans say they don’t know who they would support in a primary between the two. Cuomo leads Molinaro 57-31 percent, little changed from 57-29 percent last month. He leads DeFrancisco 56-32 percent, down a little from 57-28 percent last month.

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