Mamdani shines in poll after election win, while Schumer's numbers sink after federal shutdown

An overwhelming majority of New York City residents said Zohran Mamdani will be good for the five boroughs, even if people upstate and in the suburbs don’t.

And veteran Sen. Chuck Schumer has hit his all-time low in popularity.

Those are two key findings from a Siena College poll released Tuesday.

Mamdani, the 34-year-old democratic socialist, posted a big win over former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo on Nov. 4 to become New York City’s mayor-elect and its youngest mayor in more than a century.

Fresh off the victory, 57% of city residents surveyed by Siena said Mamdani will be good for New York. Just 26% said he’ll be bad. About 40% said they viewed him favorably; 40% unfavorably. But that’s better than before the election, when he was running 30%-38%, according to Siena.

"Among Mamdani’s new constituents, all New York City voters, he is viewed favorably, he is seen as good for the city, and a majority thinks he represents a new generation that will help make the city more welcoming and affordable," said Steve Greenberg, spokesman for the Siena poll.

While city voters are embracing Mamdani, upstate and suburban voters — who have no say in the city election — are not.

About 51% of voters in the metro suburbs — defined by Siena as Long Island and Westchester, Putnam, Rockland and Orange counties — said Mamdani would be bad for the city. Just 35% said he’d be good.

Upstate, the numbers were closer but still against Mamdani, 44%-38%.

This poll was conducted Nov. 10-12 among 802 registered voters statewide. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points, meaning the answers to each question could vary by that amount.

Meanwhile, Schumer’s favorability rating dropped significantly in the wake of the just-ended shutdown of the federal government.

Just 32% voters said they viewed the veteran Democrat — now in his 26th year in the U.S. Senate — favorably, while 55% viewed him unfavorably. In September, his numbers were much more even: 42%-45%. His all-time high number in the Siena survey was 70% back in 2005.

Even "with Democrats, his favorability rating is barely positive, 45%-43%, down from 52%-36% in September," Greenberg said.

Schumer, the Democratic leader in the U.S. Senate, isn’t up for reelection until 2028.

Other findings by Siena included:

• 72% of New Yorkers are concerned about being able to afford the rising cost of health insurance; 24% aren’t.
• 59% favor the renewal of subsidies, through Obamacare, to reduce the cost of health insurance; 21% don’t.
• 60% support increasing taxes on the top 5% of earners in the state; 32% oppose.
• 45% support a proposed natural gas pipeline to bring energy to New York City; 33% oppose.
• Ratings for Gov. Kathy Hochul and President Donald Trump didn’t change much since September. For Hochul, 52% approve of the job she is doing, while 43% disapprove. For Trump, just 37% of New York voters approve; 61% disapprove.

By Yancey Roy

yancey.roy@newsday.com@yanceyroy