Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has not confirmed that he's running for mayor of New York City, but he's got a clear lead in the upcoming Democrat primary, according to a poll released Friday.
Cuomo netted 33% of the vote in the latest Emerson College Polling/PIX11/The Hill poll, surpassing other potential competitors by double digits.
Incumbent Mayor Eric Adams placed second with 10%, followed by former City Comptroller Scott Stringer at 8%, and state Sen. Jessica Ramos, state Sen. Zellnor Myrie, and City Comptroller Brad Lander in a three-way tie with 6% each.
Petitions will start circulating on Feb. 25 for the June primary.
Cuomo's numbers in the current poll were consistent with those in a Politico poll in January, where he led by 32% among likely Democrat voters. Stringer got 10%, followed by Lander at 8%, Ramos at 7%, and Adams and state Assembly member Zohran Mamdani at 6%.
The poll was held from Feb. 3-5 among 1,000 registered voters, including 668 Democrat primary voters. The margin of error was 3 points for the full sample and 3.8 for Democrats.
Adams, who is seeking a second term, is facing a likely uphill battle, given that he is facing a five-count indictment alleging that he accepted bribes in a trade-off for political favors. He also faces a low approval rating.
The mayor has denied the allegations, calling them politically motivated.
Meanwhile, Spencer Kimball, the executive director of Emerson College Polling, said that while Cuomo enjoys high name recognition, 25% of the poll's respondents said they are undecided.
Adams, the second Black mayor of New York City, leads among Black voters at 23%, with 34% undecided while Cuomo is not on the ballot. However, with Cuomo on the ballot, he took the lead in the demographic, gaining 35% support.
New York City also has a ranked-choice voting system. This requires candidates to get a majority of the votes during multiple rounds of voting.
If no candidate gets a majority of the vote in the first round of ballots, the candidate coming in last is eliminated, with that person's votes reallocated according to voters' second choice, and the process continues until there is a clear winner.
Stringer and Ramos came in as the most popular second-choice candidates. Adams also showed some gains in second-round voting with and without Cuomo on the ballot, the poll showed.
Cuomo also came out ahead on favorability ratings, with 47% viewing him favorably and 37% unfavorably.
Adams was viewed favorably by 27% but unfavorably by 58%.
However, his prospects for reelection appear to be suffering, leaving an opening for him to have the distinction of being the first incumbent New York City mayor to lose a primary in almost 50 years.
Cuomo, meanwhile, was popular while in office but resigned in 2021 amid accusations of sexual harassment. He is also facing remaining controversy over his COVID pandemic policies.
Last month, a group of people who lost family members in New York's nursing homes during the pandemic requested that state Attorney General Letitia James update her report of Cuomo's directive ordering the facilities to accept COVID-19 patients.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.