Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani has a substantial lead in the NYC mayoral race — though his margin of victory would narrow substantially if both Mayor Adams and GOP nominee Curtis Sliwa drops out of the contest, according to a new poll released Tuesday.
The Siena College/New York Times poll of 1,284 voters last week, from Sept. 2 to 6, found Adams trailing the pack with 9 percent of the vote compared with Mamdani at 46 percent, former Gov. Andrew Cuomo at 24 percent and GOP nominee Curtis Sliwa at 15 percent.
The poll shows Mamdani winning in the November general election even if the mayor and Sliwa removed themselves from consideration, though that race becomes much tighter, with Mamdani getting 48 percent to Cuomo’s 44. The poll’s margin of error is 3.6 percent.
Trump reportedly wants Adams out of the race and is weighing giving him a job in his administration.
“The big ‘if’ is what would happen if both Sliwa and Adams were to drop out of the race and make it a two-person showdown,” Don Levy, director of the Siena Research Institute, said.
In that scenario, Cuomo would take most of Adams’ and Sliwa’s current voters and Mamdani’s lead would shrink to just four points.
The Daily News and other outlets have reported the mayor is considering taking a job with the Trump administration, although the mayor has said he is staying in the race. Sliwa has said he won’t leave the race unless he’s dead.
In a morning appearance on conservative radio show Sid & Friends in the Morning, President Trump called Adams a “nice guy” who he “helped out,” and said he hadn’t spoken to Adams directly about offering him a job.
“The backroom scheming from Donald Trump and the billionaire class is backfiring, as New Yorkers see Zohran Mamdani is the only candidate who will fight to make the most expensive city in the country more affordable,” Mamdani campaign spokesperson Dora Pekec said in a statement.
